Outgrown
by ieatleaves
Summary: Team 7 has had to do a lot of growing up in the past 7 years since Sasuke has left Konoha. Will Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi find happiness in each other again when Sasuke returns?
1. Chapter 1

Warning: I do not own Naruto or any other characters related to the series.

CHAPTER 1

She had been in Suna for the past month. Gaara had finally had to reach out to Tsunade to allow the pink haired kunoichi to come and try to revive Suna's hospital system into what it once was under Chiyo-baasama during the Second Great Shinobi War. The young kazekage had often wondered whether it was that their village had suddenly fallen behind on medical knowledge or that Konohagakure was advancing too fast; it was probably both, but Gaara secretly mused that the latter was truer: Tsunade truly was a medical genius, and even with Chiyo-baasama, there was no way that Suna could have caught up. With Akatsuki making so much trouble, Gaara knew that his village could be seriously damaged by outdated medical practices. He also knew that Tsunade could never leave Konoha, being the Hokage. So he asked for the next best thing – Sakura.

She had been hailed as a hero in Suna ever since she had fought beside Chiyo-baasama against Sasori and saved the now-beloved Kage's brother, Kankuro, from a very probable death by poison. Gaara suspected that Sakura was invaluable to the Konoha medical life, yet Tsunade accepted his request to "borrow" the medic nin very willingly. The Leaf and Sand had come a long way from their bloody history.

Upon arriving in Suna, Sakura quickly found herself becoming something of a favorite in Suna. She was, in a word, _beloved_, and during her month of running the hospital, she found that she, too, enjoyed Suna a lot. Sure, the people weren't as friendly or open as the ones in Leaf – but the people of the Wind had a stoic charm about them. Something about their awkward, gruff affection for Sakura endeared them to her.

She also became very close to Gaara and his two siblings. Sakura was undoubtedly an intelligent girl, and Gaara found, to his great surprise, that he enjoyed her company immensely. They talked about anything and everything from politics to their favorite books. Kankuro had an especially soft spot for Sakura, having been saved by her from the brink of death, and Sakura often sparred with him and his puppets to keep herself from getting rusty while she was running the hospital. Sakura also became friends with Temari – the older girl reminded the pink haired kunoichi of her shishou. Temari was blunt and easy to anger, but she also had an enormous heart and cared deeply for her people as well as her two brothers. Sakura also liked that she could often tease Temari about Shikamaru. The medic nin suspected that the two had something that was more than friendship, and was glad for both of them. Not that the two involved would admit anything was going on, of course.

But after what felt like a quick month, Sakura knew she had to return to Leaf. With the threat of Akatsuki constantly hanging around, she knew she couldn't afford to be away from home for too long. She had done her part in Suna; now it was time to go back – back to home.

As gruff as the people of Suna were, they were sad to see Sakura go, and let her know it. Sakura had always loved to feel appreciated, and she said her farewells fondly.

"Don't be a stranger, alright? Chiyo-baasama wouldn't have liked you to only come whenever it's mandated, you know." Kankuro had said at the gates as he and several others sent Sakura off.

She smiled. "I won't – wouldn't want to get Chiyo-baasama's spirit angry, now, would I?" She said as she hugged the puppeteer goodbye. Then she turned to Temari.

"Will I be seeing you soon in Leaf?"

"Probably. This ambassador thing is going to be the death of me – all this traveling back and forth, so troublesome." Replied Temari as she also hugged Sakura. The medic nin smiled, knowing that Temari didn't really mind the "troublesome" journey, as long as she got to see her favorite lazy, cloud-watching jonin.

Finally, after her round of goodbyes to everyone, Sakura turned to Gaara. She knew what an honor it was to be personally sent off by the Kazekage – but it meant more to her that Gaara was there because she was his friend, not because she was a diplomatic tool between the two allied nations.

"Well, Kazekage-sama," Sakura said teasingly, knowing that Gaara didn't like her to be so formal, "guess this is it for now. Not that I won't visit," she added hastily as Kankuro and Temari growled at her. "Take care of yourself, alright? Naruto would never forgive yourself if you didn't make it to his inauguration, you know. And trust me, he still has a _long_ way to go until Tsunade-sama will let him take over for her."

Gaara looked at her with warm eyes. "I will. And what Kankuro said about not being a stranger." The Kage, to Sakura's surprise, enveloped her in a brief hug. Sakura felt a fond pang in her heart – seven years ago, as her twelve year old genin self, she could never have imagined Gaara giving anyone, let alone her, a warm hug good-bye. _That Naruto, always affecting people in strange ways – strange but good, permanent ways,_ she thought.

With a beaming smile and a final wave good-bye to everyone, Sakura was off on the three day journey. She didn't necessarily have to hurry back to Leaf, but she found her feet moving faster than they needed to, regardless. As much as she had enjoyed Suna, Sakura missed Leaf. She missed Tsunade's yelling, and the familiarity of her own bed. She also missed Naruto beyond belief – Gaara had reminded her of Naruto's unfailingly good nature, and she missed his idiocy and how _comfortable_ he was to be around. And, of course, she missed everyone else, too. The more she thought of her friends back home, the faster she found herself moving.

Sakura made it to Leaf just shy of three days. She was pretty exhausted, but excited about seeing everyone again. She hoped that Naruto and the rest of her friends weren't out on missions – of course, it was very unlikely, almost impossible, that everyone would be home, but she hoped nonetheless that her friends were, for the most part, home safe and sound. During her journey, she had mused that if Naruto was indeed in Leaf, he'd definitely drag her to Ichiraku for some ramen as her welcome home gathering. She didn't have a love of ramen like Naruto did [did _anyone_ love ramen like Naruto does..?], but she never minded going with him to his favorite spot. It was one of the remnants of the memories from her genin days that carried over to her present, 19 year old self. Those were rare – everything had changed so much from their genin days that Sakura always treasured whatever bits she could still hold on to.

However, once she got close to Konoha's gates, she realized that her homecoming would be nothing like she imagined. She could hear and _feel_ it – the village was… unsettled. Disrupted. Something was off.

She found out what it was as soon as she stepped foot into Konoha. It turned out that people had been waiting for Sakura to turn up from Suna for the past 6 hours – Tsunade had sent their fastest carrier pidgeon for Suna to order Sakura home as soon as possible 6 hours ago, but of course, by that point, Sakura was long gone from Sand. They had gotten their signals crossed, but it was for the best, because Sakura was here now. And she was needed immediately in the hospital.

To heal Uzumaki Naruto. Who had turned up from a mission bloodied and battered.

Alongside an equally bloodied and battered Sasuke Uchiha.


	2. Chapter 2

Warning: I do not own Naruto or any other affiliated characters.

CHAPTER 2

For a split second after the gate guards had told her that a half-dead Naruto and Sasuke had appeared at those very same gates a mere quarter of a day before, Sakura couldn't feel anything at all. She didn't have a thought in her head. Then something kicked in – Naruto was _dying. Sasuke was here, and also dying. _This was no time to be standing around dazedly. She took off for the hospital immediately, and made it there in record time. Shizune and Tsunade had been operating on both boys nonstop, but they were far from saved – and the two women were getting tired. They needed Sakura to fill in. Sakura didn't even know who was operating on who – she was ushered into Shizune's operating room first, because their shishou had more chakra than either of them combined, and wouldn't need to rest before Shizune did.

It turned out that Shizune was operating on Sasuke. It made sense – after all, Naruto would surely be the Hokage after Tsunade. Sakura believed this with all her heart now, and she knew that her shishou felt it, too. Tsunade would, of course, would have chosen to save Naruto before Sasuke. It wasn't that Shizune wasn't capable of saving Naruto, or that Sasuke's life would be in danger in Shizune's hand – it just made sense that the Hokage would personally want to see to it that the future of the village would be safe by operating on Naruto herself.

Sakura stepped in for the exhausted Shizune at once. The pink kunoichi herself was pretty tired, but she knew that this was where she was supposed to be – healing her team. The team that fell apart seven years ago. The team that she couldn't save.

The team that left her behind.

Sasuke looked like death. Sakura never thought to see the boy so… still. The medical team had cleaned most of his blood off so that the body could be operated on better, but it didn't change the fact that Sasuke was a medical horror – punctured, ripped, and burned everywhere. Broken bones. Punctured organs.

Briefly, Sakura wondered with panic if this is what Naruto looked like, too. She felt her heart drop to her stomach as she looked at Sasuke for the first time in years. He was on the brink of death. Then Sakura snapped herself out of it – _the boy you lost is here in front of you, you idiot, _she told herself. _DO NOT LET HIM DIE._

Sakura had complete faith in Tsunade. Whatever state Naruto was in, her shishou would save him. So she put everything out of her mind – the images from the night Sasuke left, the time he tried to kill her when they were reunited years and years afterwards, and the final, imagined picture of him and Naruto battling themselves to death not a day ago. She put all those things out of her mind, and concentrated like she had never done into saving the boy that had slipped away so many years ago.

When the last nurse had gone with the rest of the medic team that wheeled Sasuke away had left the operating room, Sakura collapsed on the floor like a rag doll. She was exhausted. She couldn't possibly support herself with her legs anymore.

She was sure that she had pushed the limit of her chakra use to the point where the limit had pretty much thinned away into nothing. Somewhere during the operation, her concentration had broken down when she realized that Sasuke was close.. so close to death. She knew it was either she pushed herself until she broke, or he would be lost. Again.

So she pushed.

She had maintained her poise until the last nurse had gone out of the room – and then broke down. Sakura put her face in the palm of her hands, and panted. She felt like she couldn't breathe – and she was so dizzy that she really didn't believe that the floor was stationery, even though she knew in the back of her mind that the floor couldn't _possibly_ be rotating. Then came the coughing.

Sakura coughed and coughed until blood came out of her mouth. Now she _really_ couldn't breathe. She fell completely to the floor and her whole body pulsed to her coughs. Blood splattered on the already-blood strewn floor. Why couldn't she _stop coughing,_ dammit. And why was everything _spinning._ And for the love of the First Kage, could she _get the hell up off this floor._

Suddenly, she felt a cool hand raise her upright. Sakura, in the midst of all her writhing, hadn't even felt anyone come back into the room. _Shit,_ she thought. She didn't want to be seen like this. She hated to worry people. Though, admittedly, she was in a worrisome state. She hated to admit it, but it was true. She looked up.

"Kakashi-sensei…" she breathed out his name. His one eye met her two green ones, and in a swift motion, she was cradled in his arms. He laid his cool hand on her forehead, and she closed her eyes.

Her head was resting on his chest. His body was so cool – she hadn't felt how hot she was before. She inwardly cursed at herself as she realized that she must be running a fever. However, Kakashi's coolness had alleviated some of her dizziness, though she was still coughing. Out of nowhere, Kakashi produced a small towelette, and put it up to her bloody, coughing mouth. She took the towelette from him, only to find that her hands were trembling. Or was it her whole body that was shaking? She couldn't really be sure anymore.

"I'm going to ask this once, Sakura." Kakashi's gaze was still firmly planted on her eyes. "Tell me the truth, no bullshit. Do you need to be admitted to the hospital?"

He didn't often curse. Even when he did, it was especially not often directed at – or in front of – her. She knew that when his gaze and words turned harsh like this, there was no evading him. Yes, Kakashi was a lazy, mellow man who had questionable taste in his reading material. Most of the time, she felt like _she_ was the one who was his sensei, not the other way around, from how much she had to berate him for being late.

But he was also Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Nin. The leader of Team 7. Her sensei, comrade, and friend who cared fiercely for those around him, though he didn't often show it. She knew that he was really worried about her right now, and that she shouldn't lie to him. She also knew that he asked her if she needed help because he knew and respected that she didn't like others to see her as being weak. He knew her insecurities from childhood – her insecurities of being left behind and being weak, and knew that she would do anything to keep people from seeing her affected by anything.

Sakura knew he knew this, and she was grateful for his understanding. She was grateful that he understood and respected her enough to ask her if she really needed medical attention, and because he understood, because he respected her, she had to return the favor and tell him the truth.

"Don't tell Tsunade or Shizune. They must be tired from operating, too. Please take me to Hiro-san on the third floor – he'll be in the first room on the left from the staircase. He'll know what to do with me. It's nothing really… I just used too much chakra." Sakura said quietly into his chest.

Kakashi nodded and got up, still cradling Sakura in his arms. She was still too disoriented to see where they were going, but she had no doubts that Kakashi would deliver her where she needed to be. Her coughing had finally lessened, and she closed her eyes – and then tired darkness engulfed her into a deep, deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Warning: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters affiliated with the series.

CHAPTER 3

When Sakura woke up, it was dark in her hospital room. She looked at the clock on the little table next to her bed – 2:17 a.m. She had no idea how long she'd been asleep for. She had arrived at Konoha from Suna around 10 in the morning, and she knew that she had been in the operation room for at least 5 hours after that. So had she been asleep for 11 hours? Or, if it had been more than a day, 35 hours? She really had no way of knowing, she supposed, until a nurse showed up.

She suddenly bolted up. _Naruto!_ She thought, panicked. _And Sasuke…_ Where were they? Were they awake? She knew that she had taken care of Sasuke – she had made sure of that at the cost of losing her own life. She knew that her chakra was never supposed to be used in that way, but there was no other choice. Her friend was dying in front of her, and she was the only one who could save him. Shizune didn't have the energy or chakra to take over for Sakura after her own 6 hours of operating on him. Sakura was his last chance, and the pink haired medic nin knew it.

She paused. _Friend,_ she had just referred to him as a friend in her thoughts. Did she still consider him her friend?

_Yes_, came the immediate answer. Yes, the boy had tried to kill her and the people she loved. Yes, the boy had left her years ago and broke their shinobi family up. But he would always be her friend, whether he wanted to be or not. She had never stopped caring for the boy who had lost everything and fell deeper and deeper into darkness, and probably never will. This wasn't some crush she had as a twelve year old – this was deeper than that. They were Team 7, the four of them. Naruto, Sasuke, herself, and –

Kakashi. She remembered then that he was the one who found her after the operation, that he was the one who had made sure she would be safe. She wondered where he had gone. He was always coming and going at the oddest of times, she mused. For the first two years that Naruto and Sasuke had left, she also felt like she had lost Kakashi. She had submitted herself to Tsunade's tutelage, and with the third piece of Team 7 out of his hands, Kakashi started going on A and S rank missions almost constantly after that. She would occasionally run into him in the Hokage Tower as he was coming back from or leaving for a mission, but aside from standard greetings, the two never dawdled much to chat.

Truth be told, she hadn't had the strength to be around him, to talk with him as if nothing happened – as if their team hadn't been shattered. She was always glad to see him because he reminded her of Team 7, but, at the same time, she was always afraid to see him – because he reminded her of Team 7. However, she didn't really know that he felt the same way until one night a little before Naruto returned from his training with Jiraiya.

It had been a hard day for Sakura. Probably one of the hardest since Naruto left – and that was saying something, considering that the days after Naruto's departure was filled with some of the hardest days of Sakura's sheltered life. Tsunade was not an easy shishou. But she never complained, because it had been what Sakura herself had asked for, and she knew it would pay off in the end. She knew that Tsunade would mold her into the kunoichi she wanted to be.

However, that day was exceptionally torturous. That was the day Sakura lost her third patient.

The first patient she lost had been hard, too. But Tsunade had expected Sakura to take it hard, and was ready to talk her through it. To tell her that it wasn't her fault; that it was part of being a medic nin. That the best of them had lost patients. That Sakura had done everything she was supposed to, but they couldn't save everyone.

When "talking" hadn't exactly worked, Tsunade brought out the good stuff – sake. Sakura hadn't really drank until then; she was underage, after all. Plus, as a medic, she knew that that stuff was no good for her health. Yet as Tsunade more or less forced her to drink, Sakura found that she _liked_ it. She liked that it burned her throat as the liquid went down. She liked that the alcohol warmed her body up.

Most of all, she liked that the sake dulled her pain. And made her forget.

When Sakura lost her second patient, she drank herself into a stupor once more. Though she had to battle a killer hangover the next morning, she found herself thinking that she could do this, she could be tough and emotionless as long as she was drunk.

But the third patient that Sakura couldn't save broke that resolve. Because the third patient that she lost was a little genin boy who was twelve. He had stumbled off a cliff during a mission, and didn't have the chakra control down enough to save himself from falling.

Sakura cried and cried after the boy had died because the boy reminded her of _her_ boys. Of Naruto and Sasuke. She cried at the memories of the three of them as twelve year old genins, and she cried for the genin boy who must have had many dreams and ambitions as a shinobi. He would never live to see them realized.

She also cried for his teammates, who would undoubtedly be affected by the boy's death. She cried for the boy's team, which she suspected would never be whole again. It couldn't be whole again. Just like Team 7 couldn't be whole after Sasuke left.

She didn't reach for a drink that time because of two reasons: one, she really didn't believe that the alcohol could dull the blow this time. She just felt so _much_ that she couldn't possibly imagine anything making it better, and two, she didn't want to dull the pain. She wanted to know that she could handle this, that she was truly stronger now. She wanted to prove to herself that she could pick herself up after this.

Sakura had stumbled out of the hospital after the boy's death, but she didn't even know where she was going. She had no idea if her feet were leading her home or not, and she really didn't care. It was pitch dark out by then, and Konoha's streets were deserted. Somewhere along the journey, her feet gave out from under her, and she just crouched down in an empty street at the edge of an alley and cried some more. When even her tears wouldn't come anymore, she just sat there, staring out into nothing. She felt… dead. She was just so tired. She didn't know how long she sat there like that, but she found that she could no longer keep her eyes open after a while. She didn't care that she was in the middle of the street alone in the dead of the night. She just fell asleep.

When she opened her eyes, bright lights attacked her eyes. She shielded her eyes with her hand with a groan and realized that she was in a bed. She didn't remember going back home last night. And why didn't her sheets have her familiar bed scents on them? She liked to wash her bed sheets with a flowery detergent, but these sheets smelled of… she couldn't quite pinpoint the scent, other than that it smelled like nature. Pine, maybe?

She sat up with a jolt when she realized whose scent that was. She took a look around the room, then at herself. She was fully clothed, and a white duvet cover had been on her before she sat up. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why, Sakura-chan, I'm hurt," came a baritone of a voice from the doorway. "You didn't think I took advantage of you, did you?"

She threw a pillow at him, because he knew she hated when he called her Sakura-_chan_, because it always sounded so sarcastic coming from him. He caught the pillow with ease, of course. "Kakashi-sensei! You shouldn't even joke about something like that with someone like me. You've known me since I was twelve, for Kage's sake."

"Hey, I'm telling you, in the villages across the sea, the girls get married when they're nine years old," the Copy Nin countered drily.

"Well, then, I'm really glad I was born and raised here in Leaf, where that would be considered _highly inappropriate_," she emphasized with a glare. Then she realized her situation. "Uh. Why am I even here having this conversation with you in the first place?"

Kakashi leaned along the frame of his door with his signature slouchy pose. "Well, I found you last night in the streets… Sakura," there was suddenly a dangerous gleam in his one eye, "what in the world were you doing sleeping there? Something could've happened to you. A visitor from one of those villages across the sea, for example, could have picked you up to turn you into his next bride."

Street… Last night. It suddenly came back to Sakura. She felt the blood drain from her face and her heart dropping into her stomach as she remembered the reason why she was found there last night. She remembered the turmoil of emotions and… the pain.

Kakashi eyed her sternly. Despite his joke, he really was angry at her for being so stupid. She was supposed to be the level-headed one, yet he finds her sleeping on the streets alone. Then he saw her face and saw – pain. Plain pain. He hadn't seen pain in her eyes like that since the morning she told everyone of Sasuke's defection.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I was just…"

She couldn't finish the sentence. She couldn't deal with the emotions again. Then she realized that she was talking to the man she hasn't really seen in almost two years. She ignored the reasonable part of her conscience that told her that she hadn't really wanted to see him – that she had been fearing that Kakashi might remind her that their team was gone, and the two were left as broken remnants of a broken team. She ignored all this because she was hurting and wanted to lash out.

"You know what," she got up from the bed and stood in front of her sensei – her _former_ sensei. "You don't get to care about where the hell I was sleeping and why I was doing it. I owe you nothing."

Kakashi's face remained impassive as she continued, her voice laced with anger and dangerously low. When Sakura was angry, she always yelled. This quiet anger was new to Kakashi. It was new even to Sakura, she realized. "You know it's been about two years since your star pupil left us? Then the next person of interest to you in our team left, too. And gee, how many times in the past two years have you even been in my sight for more than two minutes?"

All of the emotion that Sakura's had to put away for two years that unleashed at the genin's death last night rushed to Sakura all at once, it seemed. She wanted to leave. She wanted to leave and punch the _shit_ out of something. If she could've punched Kakashi, she would've – but even in this state, she knew it'd be a waste of time. She could never land a blow on this guy.

"Just because you found me last night, doesn't mean that you get to lecture me, _sensei_." Was it her imagination, or did Kakashi actually flinch at that the word that she added at the end of the sentence as an attack on his absence in her life?

"Thanks for the bed. I'll see you when Naruto gets back, I guess." She gave him a last contemptuous look, and then moved away from the silver-haired man toward the door. What time was it, anyway? She was sure that she was late for her meeting with Tsunade… She inwardly groaned; a cranky Tsunade was not what she needed today.

Sakura was pulled out of her thoughts when an arm was place between her and the door. She looked up to see Kakashi looming over her, his hand to the wall. He really was too tall – he had to slouch down even further than his usual stance to put his face at level with Sakura's.

She looked at him in annoyed surprise, then saw his face – and her breath caught at her throat. The look on Kakashi's face was… in a word, _sad_. He looked so sorry. She had never seen her teacher look repentant about anything before.

"Sakura, listen to me before you go," he began very quietly. "I didn't… Look, I always knew I wasn't cut out to be a teacher. That's why I never took on a genin team before you guys, and you guys were more or less forced on me by the Third…"

_Huh,_ Sakura thought to herself. _So it was true._ She had always suspected that Kakashi would've gone his entire life without taking on a genin team if it weren't for the fact that Naruto and Sasuke were so… special. They were special enough to need a very special teacher – and let's face it, who was a more special jonin than the freaking Copy Nin? Sakura never really pursued the theory, though, to try to get to the bottom of it. She hadn't really felt the need to pursue a truth that would only highlight how normal and plain she was compared to her two teammates.

Kakashi continued. "You know how… less than ideal it was to have to take on both Sasuke and Naruto at the same time. They're a lot to handle. I didn't even like kids. But you were different than those two. You weren't unhappy, and you weren't damaged." Great, was she going to have to listen to him say flat out that she just wasn't worth his attention because her childhood had been too happy? She was about to open her mouth to yell at him some more when she caught his eye – it was so earnest… so _pleading_. She had never expected Kakashi to feel like he owed her an explanation, however much it was needed. She hadn't expected him to even care, really.

"But I have no excuse for not being your teacher after the boys left. I know that. Tsunade knows it. You know it. But I'm glad you found Tsunade… I'm a shitty teacher and I know it. I taught Sasuke the Chidori, and he tried to put a hole through Naruto with it. I just thought you'd be better off without me. Especially after Tsunade took you in… I didn't think you'd even want to see me. I thought you wouldn't want to be reminded of Team 7…"

Sakura stared at the man before her. She had no idea that he gave this much thought to what she felt.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. I know that that's not enough, but I'm sorry." Kakashi finished. He lifted his hand off the wall and straightened up. "And I'm sorry for holding you up here. I just wanted you to know…" he trailed off, not sure what more to say.

Sakura didn't really know what to say or do, so she said and did… nothing. She stood there and stared at her teacher for what was probably few seconds in reality, but felt like a lifetime to Kakashi.

What she did next surprised Kakashi.

Sakura put her arms around the silver-haired man's waist and gave him an embrace. She didn't say anything, but Kakashi didn't need her to – he knew, in that moment, that she wasn't really angry at him anymore. That she appreciated his explanation. That she understood.

A little piece of Team 7 had returned to Sakura and Kakashi in the form of each other.


	4. Chapter 4

Warning: I do not own Naruto or any affiliated characters.

Author's Note: Huge thanks to everyone who favorite/reviewed! It means a lot

CHAPTER 4

The next time Sakura saw Kakashi was for his infamous bell test with the newly-returned Naruto. She thought that she'd never forget the look on his face when she shattered the field with her fist and found him hiding under the earth – a look of utter surprise mixed in with, dare she say it, pride. Of her growth.

They continued to get close along with Naruto after that. Sakura was happy – she felt like her team had come back to her. The hole that was left by Sasuke's absence was still there, but after a while, she felt that maybe this would be enough. Kakashi and Naruto, then later Sai and Yamato, too.

But as Sakura sat on her hospital bed, she wondered if that really had been enough. Because if it had really, truly been enough, why did she care so much for Sasuke's life that she risked her own in the operation room? She knew, logically, that Sasuke wasn't someone she should be throwing away her life for. Friend or not, Sasuke had betrayed her and her friends – and he had betrayed Naruto. Naruto, the boy she loved like a brother. He had become such a big part of her life that she was sure that she wouldn't be able to survive if Akatsuki had their way with him. That only made her more determined to grow stronger and be a better medic. Anything to help protect Naruto. Even if it included giving up her search for Sasuke.

She realized then that she wanted, no, _needed _to see Naruto right now. To make sure that he was okay and to find out how the hell he found Sasuke and convinced him to return.

Sakura still felt weak, but she felt okay enough to walk – albeit slowly – to the front desk. The night nurse was there, and was startled to see Sakura up and about, but the pink haired kunoichi insisted on finding out what room Naruto was in. Since Sakura was the one who ran the hospital these days, the night nurse was in no position to deny her entry to Naruto's room, even though both Naruto and Sasuke's rooms were off-limits to visitors.

It was when she was in front of Naruto's room that Sakura realized that she had not asked what room Sasuke was in. She shook off the thought, figuring that she'll just find out later, and entered Naruto's room.

She had realized on her way to his room that he must be asleep. It was silly of her to expect him to be up at this hour, especially after his surgery, and she had resigned herself to getting her questions about Sasuke's return answered later. She just figured that she'd see Naruto anyway to make sure that the boy was really here and really okay.

To her great surprise, Naruto was actually awake when she entered his room.

"Sakura-chan?!"

She could see that he was in bad shape. He was bandaged everywhere, and seemed out of breath from merely getting up to greet her. But as always, he wore his trademark smile and beamed at Sakura as if nothing was wrong.

"Naruto…" she couldn't speak. She just approached his bed and hugged him as hard as she dared – which was not very hard at all, because she was so afraid of breaking him. She knew he was in pain, and didn't want to make it worse. To her surprise, he hugged her back very tightly. Just the gesture alone made her want to cry. Cry for her friend who had kept his promise to her even though she'd all but given up on it.

"Sakura-chan… what's wrong?" he asked her, confused at her sad face. His smile faltered and he looked at her concernedly. "Are you hurt? Why are you in a hospital gown?"

"Am _I_ hurt?" Sakura repeated in disbelief. "Naruto, look at yourself. It's a fucking miracle you're even here right now."

"Yeah well," Naruto grinned sheepishly. "You know the teme. Wouldn't come without a fight." Then he cocked his head. "Wait, but haven't you been in Suna? When did you get back? I only left a week ago."

"I came back a few hours after you did," _half dead,_ she added to herself. "Naruto, I swear to the First Kage, if you ever, _ever_ scare me like that ever again, I'll freaking kill you myself." Sakura still hadn't left Naruto's arms. She put her head to his chest. She could hear his heartbeat. She liked it because it reminded her that Naruto was still here with her, still alive.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, Sakura-chan… I can't believe I let that punk beat me up like that. But hey, he's okay now, too, right? Tsunade-baachan left me a note saying that he's in the hospital, too. He's supposed to be heavily guarded or something, though." Naruto looked disgruntled. "After all that work, if he leaves again, I really will kill him this time!"

Sakura looked at her friend. "Explain. What even happened? How is he back?"

Sakura opened her eyes. It was morning. She was laying next to Naruto, whose one arm was under her neck while the other was draped across her waist. To an outsider, the two of them might have looked intimate – but Sakura had really just innocently fallen asleep next to Naruto after he had told her of the story of Sasuke's return.

It didn't really make sense to her – but then again, she knew that in the deepest part of her heart, his return would never make sense to anyone besides Naruto. She had always known that if and when Sasuke came back, it wouldn't be for anyone else besides Sasuke himself and Naruto. The two had a bond, an understanding that no one could penetrate – not even Sakura. All Naruto could really say was that he had run into Sasuke on the mission that he left for a week ago, and then the two had fought to the death – and at the brink of it, the two came to an understanding. Then they were found by the Konoha ANBU some time after the two had collapsed.

"Do you think he'll get in trouble? For having left, I mean." Naruto had asked Sakura after he had finished filling her in. "We know his brother was innocent all along now… that should count, right? That his brother gave everything to the village? The least we can do is forgive Sasuke for leaving…"

Sakura closed her eyes. "I don't know what the council is going to say. But I know Tsunade will make it alright… Sasuke was an angry, hurt kid, and she knew how manipulative Orochimaru was." She paused. "I'll go talk to Ibiki-san in the morning and see if there's anything I can do, too."

Naruto smiled and gave his friend's hand a grateful squeeze. Her words calmed him. He knew that even if Tsunade couldn't convince the council, Sakura could convince ANBU to make the council reconsider.

Sakura had become a vital part of Konoha in the past couple of years. Because Tsunade and Shizune were, of course, too busy running the village to run the hospital personally, Sakura had been named the director of the hospital at the age of seventeen. With the Akatsuki and Kabuto wreaking havoc all over the continent, injuries were more frequent than ever, and the hospital had been hectic for a few years now. However, Sakura not only managed to run it efficiently, but she also was able to heal almost anyone that came back from their missions injured. She had healed many ANBU members, and in general, probably every shinobi in Konoha either owed her for saving their lives or saving the lives of someone they loved. Everyone was fond of Sakura, and Naruto knew that Ibiki knew he owed the lives of his ANBU men to Sakura. There was no way Sasuke would be severely punished if Sakura got involved in pleading on his behalf.

Sometimes Naruto marveled at how much his friend had changed. He had always admired and cared for her, even back in their genin days when she pretty much despised him. But as they got to know each other during their brief time in Team 7, then later Team Kakashi, Naruto realized that he would do anything for Sakura. They had grown so close over the past few years that they considered themselves to be family. One of the reasons he was so hell bent on bringing Sasuke back was because he wanted to make Sakura smile again – smile the way she used to during her careless and free genin days in Team 7.

When he realized that she had come to see him before even going to Sasuke's room, Naruto felt a wave of emotion hit him. He was happy that she cared so much about him. That she wanted to make sure that he was alright first. But he was also afraid – afraid that she didn't care for Sasuke anymore. Afraid that things might never go back to the way it was, that Team 7 would never be whole again even with Sasuke back, because everyone had changed too much. Sakura choosing to see Naruto before Sasuke was proof of that.

Amidst all the talking, the two had fallen asleep. Now that Sakura was awake, she realized – rather late – that she had woken up not of her own accord, but because she felt someone else's presence in the room.

"Yo," came a familiar voice from the window, which was right next to Sakura. "I must say, Sakura-chan, I didn't you were the type to put out without at least a dinner first."

If she had a kunai anywhere nearby, she would've stabbed it into her teacher's eye with no remorse at that moment. "Do me a favor and don't picture me putting out under any circumstance, dinner or not." She glared at him.

"Hai, hai. I know you're not really sleeping with Naruto… at least not in that way, because you're probably ravishing Sai till all hours of the night, actually."

Now she _really_ wished that she had a kunai handy. "Kakashi-sensei, if you don't shut up, I will personally make sure to give you no doses of morphine whenever you're back from a mission and bleeding on the floor of my hospital."

To her satisfaction, she saw her teacher's eyes turn weary. "Now, now, Sakura, you know I was just teasing. No need to take an old man so seriously." He pouted.

She sighed. He was impossible. Then she softened, remembering that he had come for her after Sasuke's operation. "How long was I out for?" She asked him. She had no idea how many days had passed since the day of the operation.

"About a day and a half, I suppose. Naruto and Sasuke arrived in Konoha right about two days ago. Speaking of which, kindly do not try to kill yourself in your own hospital. Leaders having to set good examples and all." Kakashi had been angry that Sakura used her chakra so dangerously, but he also knew that there had been no other way – she would never have put herself before saving Sasuke's life. He briefly wondered if Sakura still cared for Sasuke the way she had when she was twelve – she had been infatuated with him back then.

"You know I had no other way," Sakura's voice was quiet. "…have you seen him?"

Kakashi didn't have to ask who she was talking about. "No. No visitors allowed. I know he's woken up, though. And Tsunade's seen him, obviously. He didn't really say anything to her, other than that he won't try to run away, but she's placed some ANBU around his room, just in case. And I believe Ibiki will take him into interrogation as soon as he's recovered somewhat." He sighed. He wished that Sasuke would talk in the hospital room rather than the interrogation room at the ANBU headquarters, but Kakashi knew how stubborn Sasuke could be.

"I don't think he'll run again. Naruto thinks Sasuke will stay… and Naruto knows him the best." Sakura said, looking briefly at the peacefully sleeping Naruto.

Kakashi's question came very softly. "Will you go see him?"

Sakura didn't answer him immediately. Even if Sasuke wasn't allowed visitors, she knew she could get into his room if she wanted – she could have him listed as her patient, and of course, his doctor would have access to his room. But could she really face him after all this time?

"I should go talk to Tsunade and Ibiki first." She finally said. At this, Kakashi scrutinized her impassive face, but didn't say anything else.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

A/N: Please keep the reviews coming; it motivates me to write more/faster!

CHAPTER 5

Sakura stepped into her office to get her white lab coat. She shrugged herself into the arm holes, grabbed her clipboard, and set off to make the rounds in the hospital. She had just come from the ANBU headquarters. She had told Ibiki that, if Sasuke would talk to him willingly, he was not to use any kinds of mind tricks or torture techniques on Sasuke. Ibiki had agreed, partly because that's also what Tsunade had wanted. Ibiki also knew that Konoha had asked a terrible thing of Itachi, and that they now owed it to Itachi to treat his little brother, the last Uchiha, with the utmost respect.

But another reason Ibiki agreed to Sakura's request was that he knew she still cared about her teammate, and he knew it would be best not to go against her wishes. Sakura never threatened or blackmailed anyone – she would never abuse her powers and refuse to treat people if they went against her wishes.

But that was exactly why Ibiki wanted to respect the girl's wishes. He wasn't sure if the kunoichi knew just how much Konoha valued her – medic nins were always scarce, and _great_ medic nins like her only came along once, maybe twice, a generation. Tsunade, despite how young she looked, was now getting along in age. After Tsunade, it would be Sakura who would have to shoulder the health of the entire village. She had already taken over the hospital, and Ibiki knew that having Sakura might even mean the difference between losing and winning a war if a war did break out.

Ibiki liked that the girl was always so humble and willing to help anyone. He knew that it was no easy feat for a nineteen year old to efficiently run an entire hospital, especially when the world was in such a turmoil due to the Akatsuki. He was grateful for her service to Konoha, and because of this, he wasn't opposed to going easy on Sasuke if Sasuke himself would cooperate willingly. When Ibiki told Sakura that he consented to her terms, he couldn't help but smile back as she gave him her own smile with a soft "thank you."

Now she was back at the hospital, and there was no avoiding it: she had to check up on Sasuke and see how he was healing. She slowly made her way to his room, and she inwardly cursed when she realized that she couldn't even stop in front of the door to collect her thoughts because two ANBU were placed by the door, and they opened it for her when she approached the room. She gave them weary smiles, and stepped into Sasuke's room.

He was sitting up, but his eyes were closed. He didn't open them as she approached.

Sakura stood at the foot of his bed and looked at his face, grateful that his eyes were closed. She suspected that they were closed because they hurt – having the Sharingan on constantly had undoubtedly taken its toll on his eyes. The eyes of twelve-year-old Sasuke flashed in her head briefly: they had been so black, so bottomless. So… pained, even at such an early age.

She studied his face. He had always been good-looking, and it hadn't changed with the years. He still had the prominent, proud, and beautiful face of an Uchiha. Sakura had seen Itachi once before, many years ago. She thought that Sasuke looked very much like him, especially now that he had gotten older.

She wondered if he was ever reminded of Itachi's face when he looked in the mirror.

In the middle of her observations, Sasuke's eyes opened suddenly. The alertness in his eyes made Sakura almost… afraid. He was so intense, so determined to push everyone out. She could see it in his eyes, which she could now look at very well. His eyes were still black and bottomless. She had thought that it was impossible that they would have more angst to them; she was wrong.

Seeing his eyes made Sakura want to cry for him. He was so damaged. She wondered if he was _too_ damaged. She desperately hoped that he wasn't too far gone to salvage.

"Sasuke." She found herself breathing out his name. He remained impassive, and only stared at her. He offered no greeting or response, but then again, she hadn't really expected him to.

She went over to his heart monitor and studied the equipment. She wrote down a few notes on her clipboard, and moved closer toward the boy.

"I have to make sure your wounds are healing properly and change your bandages. Does it hurt anywhere?"

Still the boy offered no response. He merely looked into space. He wasn't in a talking mood – but then again, was he ever? She saw that he had closed his eyes once more.

Sakura was about to reach over to him, but thought better of it. She decided it would be more prudent to explain to him what she was about to do, so that he wouldn't… attack her, or something, at her sudden movements.

"Sasuke, I know you'd rather stick needles into them than tell me that your eyes are bothering you, but I also know that they _are_ hurting you. Kakashi-sensei's Sharingan hurts his eye, too. I'm going to put my hand on your temples and pour chakra into your eyes to try to make them feel better, so please bear with me for a little."

She didn't wait for a response, because she knew all too well that he wouldn't give her one. Instead, she reached over, placed her fingers on his temple. Her fingers glowed green, and after a few seconds, she saw Sasuke's face relax from the relief from pain – probably inadvertently, she thought. She wondered how long and how much his eyes had been hurting him.

After a few minutes, Sakura withdrew her hands. "That's all I can do for now, but I can come back any time they start hurting again. Just ask for me to one of the nurses."

She moved on to his bandages. His wounds still looked red and purple through the stitches, and she inwardly grimaced. Even though his IV was hooked up to a morphine administrator, Sakura noticed that Sasuke hadn't taken any of the pain reliever. She knew that he must be in pain right now. Why the boy _chose_ to be in pain, she had no idea, but it made her sad.

Hadn't he had enough pain in his life?

When she was done, she looked at Sasuke. His eyes were now open, and looking out the window. She wasn't surprised that he wouldn't look at her – he was never a social person. She sighed.

"Your wounds are healing okay, but the healing process is going to be on the slower side. Please don't do anything strenuous while they're healing, as too much strain could just rip the stitches. And you had a collapsed lung and some internal bleeding, so really, the best thing would be for you to lay here until everything's settled back nicely inside your body."Sakura paused. "A lot of people busted their asses to save your life. Please don't make us regret it."

At this, Sasuke turned and actually faced her. His face, however, was as unreadable as ever. Sakura never could read Sasuke's face, even when he wasn't so deeply entrenched in darkness.

She knew he wouldn't actually say anything to her, though. So she turned around to go, and when she reached the door, she whispered, without turning around, "…Welcome back, Sasuke," before closing the door to the room.

He hadn't expected her.

Even though his eyes were closed – they were hurting him too much – he knew that it was Sakura who had walked in the door. He was surprised that he remembered her presence after all these years.

She had grown and changed. She now had a calm air about her. Her chakra wasn't like others that he had encountered – most of the people he knew possessed chakra that was almost bursting. They pulsed within people's bodies, and they always made Sasuke alert. But Sakura's chakra merely flowed through her – it was serene. It was soothing.

He was almost annoyed at himself for finding her chakra so calming.

Sasuke observed Sakura's eyes, and saw that they, too, had grown. Physically, they were still similar – the same bright, big green eyes. But the lightness she had in them as a twelve-year-old were gone.

Sasuke remembered looking into Sakura's eyes once and feeling envious of it. He had never admitted it to anybody, of course. But he coveted the carefree, delightful light that emanated from Sakura's eyes because his own eyes lacked light. His eyes had always been dark ever since the day his brother murdered his family. He remembered thinking contemptuously yet enviously that Sakura had eyes of a girl who had never known real pain.

But now, her eyes no longer had that light. He could see a glimpse of what had once been there, but it was faded and worn out. It was now largely replaced by – sadness, he could only call it. He wondered what had happened to make her eyes so different – then wondered if it had been caused wholly by him. He shook the thought out and closed his eyes once more.

Sasuke was surprised when Sakura was able to alleviate the pain in his eyes. He hadn't felt such relief in… years, he realized. The path that Sasuke chose in life had made him many enemies, and his Sharingan was almost constantly in a state of activation so as to not let his guards down. He wondered how it was that Sakura was able to relieve his pain in such a short time. But then again, he wondered why she was even checking in as his doctor. Was she really a medic now? She was only nineteen. Most medic nin's careers started in their late twenties, after all their studies.

She didn't talk as much as she used to. Sasuke wondered if Sakura was afraid of him. He couldn't really tell what she was thinking – it was odd; she had been so easy to read as a child.

But then again, she had probably changed with time as he has had to.

She didn't linger in his room. When she was done with her business, she excused herself out of the room. Her departure wasn't cold, but it was abrupt.

But it wasn't abrupt enough that he couldn't hear her soft "welcome back."


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

A/N: Please review! It helps me write

CHAPTER 6

That night, Sakura didn't get off her shift at the hospital until midnight. It was pretty common for her – in fact, she thought that she actually got off rather early for her. She was used to all-nighters at the hospital.

Before she left, she paid Naruto another visit, but he was fast asleep. She smiled at the snoring blonde – he was healing a bit better than Sasuke was, and would hopefully be out of the hospital in a week or so.

Sakura sat next to Naruto's bed for a while, just watching the boy sleep. She wasn't ready to go home yet – truth be told, she rather hated going to her apartment at night because she knew she had no one to go home to. She would usually slip into one of her teammate's apartments after her shifts and sleep on their couches. Her team had grown accustomed to this practice, and she had a key to all of their apartments, except for Kakashi's, who never bothered to lock his door anyway. She supposed even burglars avoided looting his apartment – not that he had anything to loot anyway. The silver-haired jonin was a minimalist in all of his habits, save for his excessive fondness for literature, if you could call it that.

Thinking of Kakashi made her realize that she hadn't seen him all day. Not that they saw each other every day, but she had figured that he would've wanted to find out how her meeting with Ibiki went.

Kakashi's sleeping habits were pretty unpredictable, so she had no idea whether he was still up for not, but she decided to go to his apartment anyway. To her dismay, she found his windows dark when she approached her teacher's dwelling, meaning that he was probably already sleeping, but she continued on her way anyway.

She slipped into his apartment quietly – but she knew he would wake up regardless of how quiet she was. Kakashi had lived too long as a ninja to be a heavy sleeper. Even so, it was with light footsteps that she approached his room, the door of which was open.

Kakashi was sprawled on one side of his bed. He had his usual sleeping outfit on – his mask and black jonin undershirt and a pair of loose, cotton pants.

Sometimes, Sakura forgot how tall Kakashi really was because of his terrible, slouchy posture. But seeing him laying on his bed, she was suddenly struck with how long his legs were.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei. Go back to sleep – I'll be out of here early morning."

Kakashi looked up at her from the bed. He was relaxed, but still had an alertness about him. She could never catch the Copy Nin drowsy. He frowned when he saw her face.

"You look like you need more than 4 hours of sleep, Sakura." He admonished.

Huh, was it already 1 a.m.? Sakura sighed. She _was_ tired, and she knew she looked it.

"I've had less." Sakura attempted a feeble smile.

Kakashi's frown only deepened. He knew that she had had less – she usually ran on about 3-4 hours of sleep, so really, by her standards, tonight was almost a good night's sleep in comparison. He had never liked that Sakura almost never got to sleep anymore – Kakashi didn't, either, for that matter, but he had never been a sleeper, really. His body was so used to not sleeping that he automatically got up after a couple of hours of sleep. He was an early riser by nature. But he knew that Sakura had never been, nor will ever be, the type to forego sleep – he always saw that she was almost even more tired after her meager few hours of sleep on the nights that she crashed on his couch.

Still with the feeble smile, Sakura bid her sensei a good night, and slipped out into his living room. She settled down on his familiar couch, and breathed a sigh of tiredness as she instantly fell into a dreamless sleep.

Kakashi didn't fall back asleep, however. He laid on his bed for a few minutes and listened to his student's breathing become even in her sleep. He then got up and approached the couch where Sakura slept. He bent down and picked her up, and moved her to his bed, where he had laid only a few seconds ago. Even in her sleep, Sakura immediately responded to the warmth on the sheets from Kakashi's body, and she snuggled comfortably on the bed.

Kakashi took a seat at the corner of his room on a chair, and simply watched Sakura sleep. He often moved her to his bed from the couch when she slept. She would yell at him for it in the morning, of course. He knew that she didn't like him to give her the bed, because, as she put it, "it's your bed, you should be the one sleeping in it!"

But he could bear the shouting if it meant that Sakura would sleep a bit more comfortably for the few hours that she had to sleep. It was one of the few things he could do for her these days.

Kakashi knew that if it weren't for Team 7, Sakura wouldn't have had to grow up so quickly. She had been the only one with a very good chance at a normal, decent, and – dare he say it – happy life. More than once, he was sorry that it was she who had been placed in his team all those years ago. Any chance she had at being a normal teenager, even "normal" for a shinobi, had been destroyed the moment Sarutobi assigned her to be on the same team as three of the most complicated and broken people in the village.

When daylight broke out around half past four, Kakashi silently and swiftly got ready and, with a very gentle pat on Sakura's head, left through the window. His days always started with a visit to his Obito, Rin, and Minato, and he didn't want to be around when Sakura woke up – after all, she could wait to yell at him about letting her take the bed later in the day.

When Sakura woke up, it was half past 6 a.m. Kakashi was nowhere to be found, and she was in his bed. She often wondered if it wasn't a bad sign that Kakashi could move her without waking her up – after all, a shinobi is never supposed to be caught off guard. But then she always consoled herself by saying that the First himself probably couldn't have detected Kakashi coming.

She was late; she had wanted to be at the hospital by 5 a.m. She definitely didn't have the time to go back to her apartment to shower, so she settled on showering in Kakashi's shower. She had a spare change of clothing in his apartment – she had a spare in all of her boys' homes, actually. Kakashi, Naruto, and even Sai's apartments all had some of her essentials in them, as she crashed their apartments often.

She managed to get to the hospital by 7 a.m., and got to work immediately. She was by no means refreshed by her few hours of sleep, but she had no choice but to push through it. Sakura went over her administrative duties first, and by the time she was through with the more boring parts of her job, it was about 11 a.m. She decided that it was time to check up on Naruto, if only to brighten up her morning.

"Sakura-chan!" came Naruto's usual, loud greeting as she entered his room. "Sakura-chan, when can I leave the hospital? I can't wait too long to have ramen, I'm already going through withdrawals! Hospital food really sucks," he complained.

She gave him a stern look. "Naruto, I will kick your ass to freaking Mist if you so much as get out of this wing. You need to stay here for at least a week."

Naruto gave a dramatic sigh. "You're too strict, Sakura-chan. Have you seen Sasuke today yet? I bet that teme's itching to get out of here, too."

Sakura paused. "No, I haven't… Naruto?"

Naruto's big, blue eyes focused on her as he realized that her expression had gotten serious. "What?"

"Do you think Sasuke will really be alright here?"

Naruto's expression grew uncharacteristically thoughtful for him. "I think…" he faltered, then started once more, this time resolutely. "I think he will be. He's been alone for so long, Sakura-chan… and I think he's sick of it. He'll never come out and say it, 'cause he's Sasuke, but I think he wants to come out of the darkness. But we're gonna have to help him, okay? We can't give up on him now! He needs us more than ever!"

Naruto grinned his childish grin at Sakura – and something about his words and his grin together made Sakura hopeful. Hopeful that they could really provide Sasuke with much-needed light.

It was nighttime. A strangely orange-tinted crescent moon shone brightly outside of Sasuke's window. He had been watching the moon for quite some time now; he couldn't sleep. He rarely could.

"Still in ANBU?" Sasuke asked quietly into the darkness outside.

Hatake Kakashi stepped out of the shadows and stood on the roof, facing Sasuke through the window. "It's not really a job you retire from," replied the jonin.

Sasuke wondered if Kakashi had volunteered to be his ANBU watch or if he had been ordered. It didn't really matter, he decided. He didn't really care either way.

He eyed his former sensei. Kakashi seemed… unsettlingly same. He must have been, what, 33 now? He still looked the same as he did on the day Sasuke met him for the first time on the bridge with Naruto and Sakura.

The two men – Sasuke was now a man, after all – fell into silence as they regarded each other.

"I could let you go right now," came unexpected words from Kakashi.

Sasuke's expression didn't change, but inwardly, the raven-haired nin was taken aback.

"I'm the only one watching you right now. I could let you leave – you passed the worst of your injuries. You won't have any problems getting out of Konoha." Kakashi continued. His expression was as unreadable as Sasuke's.

Silence ensued once more. The two stared into each other's eyes.

"My shift ends at 6 a.m. You have three more hours." With those words, Kakashi lifted two fingers in fare-well. Then he was gone with a pop of smoke.

Kakashi hadn't expected Sakura at his apartment tonight. He had told her that he wouldn't be there, that he had a brief mission to complete until the morning.

He hadn't, however, told her what the mission actually was.

He supposed she had been tired, and he didn't blame her. The girl was being run ragged by the hospital. Kakashi's apartment was the closer to the hospital than those of Naruto's and Sai's (and her own, for that matter) and he supposed that she must have been too tired to make it anywhere but to his apartment.

Since he had told her that he wouldn't be in tonight, Sakura had taken the liberty of taking over his bed. Kakashi didn't really mind – the couch would do alright for him. It wasn't as if he ever really slept, anyway.

Before retiring to the couch, he paused briefly by his bed and looked down upon Sakura.

Would Sasuke leave again tonight? Kakashi had no idea. If he did leave, Kakashi wondered what Sakura would say if he told her that Kakashi himself was the one who had given Sasuke the opportunity to leave.

She could hate him. The thought of Sakura hating him left Kakashi a bad taste in his mouth.

But he had to do it.

He had to make sure that Sasuke was staying because he wanted to. He had to make sure that Sasuke hadn't changed his mind. Kakashi wasn't sure what Sasuke had imagined when he came back to Konoha, but the silver-haired man knew that Sasuke had been here long enough to tell that things would be different – that the people he knew were different. But Kakashi had to make sure that Sasuke would still want to stay, even with all of the changes.

Because he couldn't bear to see it if Naruto and Sakura got used to the idea of having Sasuke around, only to find him gone one morning. Because he couldn't bear to see his students fall apart again.

Because he wasn't sure that they could pick themselves up again if they had to fall a second time.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

"So, who's got the shift to watch Sasuke tonight?" Kakashi casually asked Tsunade.

"That's what you interrupted my work for?" Tsunade responded irritably. She was buried in paperwork, and then this silver-haired child of a man – for she would never really stop thinking of him as the bratty kid he once was, some twenty-odd years ago – had interrupted her flow of work for this. "If you're going to volunteer for the night shift again, go hassle whatever ANBU _is_ assigned to him tonight and stop annoying me." She was almost growling. It had been a long day for her.

Sasuke's return was giving her a headache. Just _why_ the Uchiha boy picked the worst time to be back, she didn't know. The post-war paperwork was almost as bad as the pre-war paperwork, and she had been so sure that _nothing_ could be as bad as the pre-war paperwork had been. The fact that the Kages of every major shinobi village were constantly writing her about what they thought Sasuke's punishment should be didn't help it, of course.

_What is it with these damn Sharingan users, _Tsunade wondered to herself unamusedly. _Absolute pains in the asses, all of them. _She looked up once again at one of the Sharingan users in the flesh in front of her desk. "I don't see you leaving, Kakashi."

"Was there even an ANBU assigned to him this morning and afternoon?"

_Why_ was he being so persistent? And annoying? So _persistently annoying_, even more so than usual?

"Of course there was," Tsunade was actually growling at the jonin in front her her now. "I just read the report on the boy from the ANBU that watched him today – he was just sleeping all morning." She narrowed her eyes. "What the hell is this about, Kakashi? I _really_ doubt you're volunteering to take a shift right now. I thought hell would freeze over last night when you volunteered, and twice in a row just isn't normal for you." _Lazy bastard,_ she silently added.

"Tsunade-sama," Kakashi said quietly. "I left Sasuke during my watch last night."

There was a moment of silence in the room while Tsunade just stared at the silver-haired shinobi.

"What did you just say?" She finally got out the words.

"I told Sasuke that he could leave if he wanted to. Then I left him."

Tsunade could have punched him with a full-on, chakra-enhanced fist right then. She really could have.

"What the _HELL_ is wrong with you, Hatake?!" Tsunade pushed aside all her paperwork from her desk in anger, causing papers to fly around everywhere around her as she fumed. "Do you have ANY idea how much shit Konoha would be in if we lost him right now?!"

Kakashi did, in fact, know just how much "shit" his village would be in, had Sasuke chosen to leave. He also knew that he wouldn't have been able to dodge punishment in that case – that he could have even maybe lost his leaf-engraved forehead protector over it.

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi looked into her brown eyes. "He stayed."

This temporarily stopped Tsunade's anger. _He stayed _- the words echoed in her head.

She had been following Sasuke's health reports thoroughly. She, therefore, knew that, as of yesterday, Sasuke was out of the danger zone as far as his body was concerned. He wouldn't be hopping around wielding five Chidori's in a row or anything any time soon, but Tsunade knew that, should he have wished, he could have left last night, especially if Kakashi had left that window open.

But – he had _stayed._

_Why?_

Kakashi watched the Godaime closely as her facial expression went from that of anger, confusion, then, finally, clarity. When she finally spoke again, her words rang through the room with authority of a true Hokage.

"Get the idiot and the Uchiha in here. _Now._"

Sasuke had never been face-to-face with the Godaime of Konoha before – at least, not while he was fully conscious, as the first and last time he _had_ been in her direct presence was when he had been brought to the hospital after his fight with Naruto.

His impression of Tsunade as he stood in her office was, simply put, that she just didn't _like_ him. Every word and look directed at him spit out venom, whether it be on purpose or not. Sasuke briefly wondered what he had done to offend her so.

Then he remembered the times he had almost killed each of the members of Team 7 – including Sakura, who had turned out to be Tsunade's personal apprentice.

He stared vacantly ("insolently" was the word Tsunade would have used) the Hokage, wondering why he was brought here from the hospital.

Especially with the dobe.

"Tsunade-baachan, what did you want?" Naruto asked – rather idiotically, Kakashi thought. The jonin sighed.

Some things never changed.

"_Don't call me that,_ you brat," Tsunade glared at the blonde idiot. "And wait to be spoken to!" She then turned her glare onto the onyx eyes of the Uchiha. "You."

Could people actually _spit_ words out literally? Sasuke thought – rather darkly – that Tsunade has managed it pretty well.

"What do you want out of this?" She demanded.

Sasuke had no idea what she was talking about. So he just kept on looking at her – which further aggravated the brown-eyed woman.

"Don't just _look_ at me, boy! Kami, I thought you were supposed to be smart. You came back." She paused to glare at Kakashi for a moment before glaring back at Sasuke. "We healed you enough that you could leave if you wanted to – maybe even if we hadn't given you a way out – shut it, Naruto, not now." She held up a hand to the confused-looking blonde, who had opened his mouth to ask what she was talking about. He clearly had no idea that Sasuke had been given a choice to leave by Kakashi. As angry as Tsunade had been, she decided that she would keep Kakashi's name out of the conversation. "So level with me here – what is it that you want? One day, you're jumping around all over the continent screaming your hatred for Konoha, and the next, you're here and all docile about it."

Sasuke's eyes were unreadable. "I don't want anything."

"That's exactly the shitty response that I _didn't_ want." Tsunade retorted, throwing her hands up in the air angrily.

The blonde-haired woman suddenly got very quiet, and dropped her angry hand gestures. When she opened her mouth again to speak, it was with an air that let Sasuke see, for the first time, that she really was an old woman beneath all the reverse-aging jutsu. She was – _tired._

"Uchiha, I don't know what the hell happened with you and Naruto that day when you both came to the village's gate half-dead, and I don't really want to hear an explanation, either." She knew she wouldn't understand it. It was between Naruto and Sasuke, whatever the hell it was. Just as it had been between Jiraiya and Orochimaru. The difference was the Naruto genuinely cared for Sasuke just as the raven-haired boy had been his brother.

Jiraiya had never cared for Orochimaru like that. He _couldn't,_ because, deep down, he had known that there was no pulling Orochimaru out of his evil darkness. Orochimaru had relished in his perverseness – he actually attained joy from torturing and killing others.

Of all of the reports Tsunade had read on Sasuke, she had never come across one that said that Sasuke had ever tortured or even killed any civilian.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Tsunade continued speaking to Sasuke. "The other Kages of other villages are furious that you're here and still alive. They're furious that we healed your injuries and that you're not imprisoned, if not executed. If you want to stay here, you'll have to spend the rest of your life trying to appease those old men and not making Konoha a target by extension. You'll have to spend months, no, _years_, ingratiating yourself back into this village. You'll be expected to perform missions without pay for a long, _long_ time, and you'll always be watched, even if you don't know it."

Tsunade stopped and observed that Naruto had become increasingly red in the face from being restrained from speaking by Kakashi's firm hand over his mouth. She could see that Naruto hated that she was speaking to Sasuke like this. She was treating him like a criminal, and in Naruto's eyes, Sasuke was still a shinobi ninja who had just fallen off the tracks – but to the blonde boy, Sasuke was still one of them, regardless of his mistakes.

"…But." Tsunade started once more. "If you choose to stay – if you choose to stop running… You'll have a Hokage that will shut the other Kages up for you. You'll have a host of the people with whom you've graduated the Academy that won't begrudge you of their comradeship. You'll Sakura, who has become one of the most influential shinobi of this village, and this lazy bastard" – she pointed at Kakashi – "on your side, not to mention this absolute idiot," she pointed at Naruto. "If you stay, you will have to pay for the past seven years that you were gone without permission. But if you stay, everything that you've built then broken down when you were twelve can be built again. The choice is yours."

When Tsunade finished speaking, silence filled the room. Naruto had even stopped struggling against Kakashi, and had actually become quiet.

All eyes were on Sasuke, but Sasuke's eyes weren't looking back at any of them. Instead, he had dropped his gaze to the floor.

No one spoke. No one moved.

After what seemed like forever, Sasuke finally spoke.

"I came to stay."

A/N: I'm sorry I haven't updated the story since (I think) last week – I promise I will start updating almost every day again! And I promise more Sasuke and Sakura interaction in the next chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

Sakura had been contemplating the issue that brought her to Sasuke's door for several days now. At first, the idea had popped into her head out of nowhere – it suddenly sprung up, announced. And every day after that, she would find herself thinking of it while she went about her business in the hospital.

Finally, when she realized that she had to at least _try_ to get an answer out of Sasuke about this, she set out for his new apartment. It was about 9 p.m., and she wasn't done with her work at the hospital yet, but she knew that it would be well past midnight when she actually finished the work, and she didn't want to visit Sasuke so late at night. So she left her office, resolving to come back soon.

Sasuke's apartment was actually quite close to the hospital. It had been two weeks since Tsunade had announced Sasuke's punishment for his defection: a year of probation – which meant that he could not become a captain of a mission, nor could he get a bad report about his behavior from his captain – and three years of missions without pay. Since everyone knew the truth about Itachi and the Uchiha massacre by now, no one really had a problem with Sasuke being reinstated as a Konoha ninja. The village was eager to move on from its dark past, especially since it meant that Konoha would once again have the Sharingan kekkei genkai.

Since the decision, Sasuke had been given his apartment and ordered to stay in until further notice while Tsunade handled the diplomatic backlash of reinstating Sasuke as a Leaf nin. Sakura thought this quasi-house arrest to be an unfortunate event, as Sasuke was sure to be in a rather bad mood. She didn't know much about the nineteen-year-old Sasuke, but she knew that he did not like to be cooped up.

When Sakura finally was on his doorstep, she didn't pause in front of the door before knocking. She had come here with a purpose, an important purpose, and she wouldn't waver now.

"Hi Sasuke," greeted Sakura as Sasuke opened the door to face her.

He had felt her chakra approaching his apartment – she had a very distinct chakra signature. Sasuke hadn't seen Sakura since he had left the hospital; Naruto had complained on many occasions that Sakura was buried with work. Sasuke had wondered why it was that the girl always had so much work – inwardly, of course. However, his answer was answered one day when Naruto mentioned in passing that the pink-haired nin had been the director and head medic of the hospital for several months now.

Sasuke was surprised. She was only nineteen, after all. He had previously thought that medic nins finished their studies in their late-twenties to early-thirties; yet Sakura was nineteen and running an entire hospital.

But clearly the work was getting to her; Sasuke saw how tired Sakura was as he regarded her from his doorway. She was pale, and had bags under her eyes as if she hadn't slept. He also saw that she was rather frail-looking; her thin frame contrasted oddly with Sasuke's understanding of her abilities as a ninja, as he had heard that she now could smash the earth to pieces with a single punch.

With a silent nod, Sasuke stepped to the side a little to indicate that she could come in. Once she did so, he walked over into the living room, where he had been reading some old family scrolls. He took a seat at the sofa, and Sakura took a seat opposite to his after a brief survey of the room.

"This is nice," Sakura glanced around, taking in the apartment. "I guess you'd be itching to get out, though, huh?" She added softly, almost as though she was talking to herself.

Sasuke didn't say anything. He wasn't one for small talk – he wondered why she had come. She had clearly been busy with the hospital, and from the way she looked, she probably wanted sleep more than anything; so why had she come to see him instead of either working or sleeping?

Sakura's jade eyes looked straight at Sasuke's black ones. "Sasuke… how far has your eyesight deteriorated?"

This was probably the last question he expected Sakura to ask him. She had cleared up the pain from his Sharingan a couple of times after the first try while he had been in the hospital, but she hadn't examined his eyes.

"I remembered something Kakashi-sensei said to, um, Itachi once." Sakura stumbled over his brother's name. She rushed on with her next sentence. "He asked if Itachi's gone completely blind yet… and I know Kakashi-sensei's eyesight is getting worse, too."

Sasuke merely looked at her. He didn't particularly want to tell her that his eyesight _had_ deteriorated – a lot. But he didn't want to tell _anyone_ about this, because he didn't want it to be known that using the Sharingan could have that effect. Sasuke had lived among enemies for so long during the past few years that he figured that the less was known about his eyes, the better.

"I don't need your help," Sasuke finally said.

Sakura actually scoffed at him. "But you do," she countered quietly. "I know enough about your kekkei genkai that I know you'll eventually go blind if you keep using it the way you've been using. It might be years away – or it might be months. I really don't know that much about it to tell. Which is where your cooperation comes in." Sakura paused. "I can't _not_ do this, Sasuke. You and Kakashi both are going to go _blind,_ and I know I can help if you just let me. I can't get the research done from Kakashi's eyes because his Sharingan is stuck – it won't change back to its normal state. Your eyes are the only sample I have."

She really had changed, Sasuke thought. He knew that the Sakura he had known as a twelve-year-old wouldn't have had the guts to ask this of him or pursue the matter further after Sasuke refused help.

She also wouldn't have been so sure that she could heal his eyes.

But the Sakura that sat in front of him now had a quiet, yet fierce, resolve about her task. He could tell that she wouldn't leave without his agreement.

The truth was that Sasuke's eyes _were_ troubling him. He had noticed a significant drop in his eyesight, and the constant headaches and pains that the use of his Sharingan brought on was always plaguing him. If Sakura was so sure she could fix it if she could just study his eyes – would it be so bad for him to let her do so?

Briefly, the thought that his clan wouldn't have wanted their bloodline trait to be studied flashed across his mind. But almost as suddenly as the thought appeared, Sasuke put it away – he didn't care for his clan's approval anymore. He had to move on from his past, and the clan that made Itachi choose between his family and his village had no right to dictate how Sasuke should live his life.

"How long is this going to take."

Sakura was surprised to hear those words come out of Sasuke's mouth. She had fully been expecting to have to fight teeth and nail on this, and even then, she had thought he would say no. She knew that his asking how long this would take was as good as a yes as far as Sasuke went. Language barriers, Sakura noted. She hoped he could kick that habit off, but then again, he _was_ an Uchiha…

"I'm… not sure. I would have to do some research to even find that out. The Sharingan isn't exactly familiar territory for me, especially the way you've been using it." Sakura replied carefully. "I was hoping to get started on it as soon as possible, though, since you won't be receiving missions that require the use of your Sharingan for a while. I think your eyes are going to have a better chance of recovering if we start working on it while you have no real use for it. I have to get back to the hospital soon, but I could come by tomorrow night if you're not busy? I'll send a note with the exact time tomorrow evening; I'm not sure what time I'll be getting off my shift tomorrow yet…"

"You're going back to the hospital tonight?"

Sakura might have imagined it, but she thought that Sasuke sounded… annoyed. She then shook it off and told herself that she _did_ imagine it; after all, why would Sasuke be aggravated that she was going back to work?

"Yeah, I just left for a little bit to catch you before you went to sleep. I haven't finished my work for today yet." Sakura smiled at him – or she tried, anyway. She knew that it was a feeble smile; she couldn't really conjure a real one when she was reminded of the pile of paperwork sitting on her desk, waiting to be read and signed. An involuntary sigh escaped her mouth before she could even stop it. "So… I'll let you get back to, uh, reading those scrolls, I guess. I'm sorry I came unannounced."

Sakura stood up from the couch and was about to move toward the door when she suddenly remembered something. "Oh, Sasuke, if you could please do me a favor… Please don't tell Kakashi that I'm studying your eyes."

Sasuke's face was as impassive as ever as he gave her a slight nod. She doubted that he would have told Kakashi anyway, but she wanted to cover all of her bases.

She knew that Kakashi wouldn't exactly be thrilled that she was taking on extra work for herself, especially since the motivation behind it was related to his eyes as well as Sasuke's. Sakura didn't want Kakashi to feel bad, or worse, angry, that she was making herself more tired. She knew that, despite his easy-going demeanor, he really was concerned that she was being overworked. But Sakura told herself that she was really fine, and that she could handle a few nights with less sleep if it meant saving Kakashi and Sasuke's eyesights.

"I'll see myself out. Good night, Sasuke." She attempted another smile, but she knew it came up short this time, too.

_Well, it wasn't like Sasuke cared whether her smile was feeble or not_, she told herself as she exited his apartment and headed toward the hospital.

He didn't really know why, but Sasuke was irritated that Sakura had gone back to the hospital. It was already pretty late as it was, and since she was going back to work, it seemed unlikely that Sakura would get a full night's sleep.

He saw how tired she was – how much she looked like she needed a full night's sleep. Sasuke didn't know why he felt so annoyed that Sakura was working so much, and he definitely didn't know why she would even want to take more on her plate with the Sharingan research. But neither of these things was a problem that Sasuke could help with even if he could – or wanted to. It wasn't as if he had a real reason to care, did he?

_She saved your life_, nagged a voice deep down Sasuke's conscience. But he shut that thought up, reasoning that he hadn't asked for her help – just as he hadn't asked her to heal his eyes. This was all voluntary, for god's sake.

Plus, studying Sasuke's eyes would not only benefit himself, but it would also help Kakashi. Sakura had seemed like she wanted to do this for their old teacher's sake as well as Sasuke's – therefore, there really was no reason why Sasuke should care whether Sakura was stretching herself out too thin or not.

Just then, Sasuke remembered Sakura's request as she was leaving – "don't tell Kakashi." The reason behind it wasn't hard to guess: she didn't want Kakashi knowing that she was working extra hours to help his eyes.

Knowing that Sakura thought that Sasuke wouldn't really care whether she was overworked or not made him even more irritated.

And he had no idea why he was irritated at any of these things.

_Annoying girl._

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who's been reviewing the story so far – if you are following this story (for which I'm really grateful, by the way!), please review! Without the reviews, I don't really know what you guys like, don't like, etc, and even if it's just a general comment, I would really appreciate it. It helps me motivate myself to write more!


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

"Hi, Sasuke."

When Sasuke opened the door to let Sakura in, he was skeptical as to whether she could even keep herself from passing out soon.

It was eleven o'clock at night. Sakura hadn't planned on coming so late, but she had had to perform emergency surgery at seven, and hadn't gotten out until now. She had managed to remember to tell a nurse to send a message to Sasuke saying that she would be a bit later than she thought.

The surgery wasn't necessarily a difficult one, but it had been time-consuming – which also meant chakra-consuming. However, Sakura didn't want to bail on her first session with Sasuke, since she had been the one to ask for it and didn't want to set precedence for canceling. Therefore, throughout the surgery, Sakura was extra-careful about conserving enough chakra to work on Sasuke's eyes.

Despite her lack of energy and chakra, Sakura was in a fairly good mood. The surgery had gone well, and she actually had finished all that she needed to do for the day. After working on Sasuke's eyes, she would be free to go home. Well, maybe not _her_ home – she mentally went over which of her boys would be home. Sai had been away on a mission this whole time, and wasn't due back for a few more days; that left Naruto and Kakashi. Sakura decided to visit Naruto after leaving Sasuke's, since Kakashi had an annoyingly good sense of smell. He might be able to tell that she had been at Sasuke's, and that might lead to questions, and she was still set on keeping him in the dark about her quest to study – and heal – the Sharingan.

Sasuke let Sakura into his apartment, and he took the same seat on the couch as he had done yesterday. However, Sakura didn't sit across from him this time; she sat down next to him on the same couch as him. She would need to be close to him to observe his eyes, after all.

"I need to feel how much damage has been done before I go ahead with studying your eyes in the Sharingan state, Sasuke." Sakura began. "So just relax while I put some of my chakra into your nerves."

Sakura put her hands up to his temple, and soon, Sasuke felt a foreign chakra flow into his head. It wasn't unpleasant – in fact, it was almost refreshing.

Sasuke looked at Sakura. Her eyes were closed as she examined his nerves through chakra. He hadn't really seen her at this close a range since years ago, when, as genins, they were forced into various activities and missions together. Seeing her this close, Sasuke could now see that, though her skin was as ivory as ever, Sakura now had a few scars on her face. They must have been old, for they had almost faded. But since she had fair complexion to begin with and was even paler now – probably due to a lack of sleep – the faded scars seemed more prominent than they should be. Sasuke briefly wondered where she got her scars, especially the rather long one that stretch from just below her right cheekbone to just under her jaw.

Suddenly, Sakura opened her eyes, and when her green eyes saw Sasuke's black ones staring right at her, she seemed startled for a second. But she regained her composure in a split of a second, and merely smiled as she asked him to change his eyes to the Sharingan state.

* * *

Sakura hadn't expected to find Sasuke's eyes on her when she opened her eyes. Actually, she had been so absorbed in exploring the damages done to his nerves around his eyes that she hadn't really thought of the fact that Sasuke needed _something_ to look at to occupy himself as she was doing her thing.

_I probably look like hell right now,_ she thought ruefully to herself. But then she immediately censured the thought – after all, Sasuke couldn't care less whether she looked good or bad.

She snapped her focus back to the problem at hand. Just as she had suspected, Sasuke's nerves around his eyes were deteriorating fast. Upon discovering this, she wondered to herself if he had ever turned off his Sharingan during his years away from Konoha. His eyes seemed to be worse off than Kakashi's, and the silver-haired man had been using the Sharingan for years longer than Sasuke had.

When Sasuke changed his eyes to the Sharingan state upon her request, she found herself staring into them for longer than necessary. It was more mesmerizing than she had thought it would be. She was used to seeing Kakashi's Sharingan, which had its own beauty to it, but something about seeing Sasuke's naturally onyx eyes turn to the blood red had such an alluring quality to it that she couldn't help but stare at it for a few seconds.

When Sasuke raised his one of his eyebrows, Sakura snapped out of the trance. "Sorry, it's just… incredible, the Sharingan." She said, feeling rather lame. She hurriedly put her hands back on his temple, and closed her eyes – she would definitely work better if she didn't get sucked into the beauty of those red eyes. She let her chakra flow through, and got back to work.

* * *

She didn't know how much time had passed. Aside from asking Sasuke to turn his Sharingan off and on every few minutes, Sakura had been completely immersed in her work. Every once in a while, she paused to scribble notes down in her notepad and frowned to herself. _This might take long time_, she thought to herself.

The way Sasuke had been using his Sharingan troubled Sakura. She could tell that he hadn't been using it the way he should have been using them – he had pushed its use so far that it seemed as if the eyes were rebelling against his nerves. After tonight, she knew that she was racing against time to heal his eyes. Though he wouldn't be using the Sharingan for a while, since it was unlikely that Tsunade would send him on dangerous missions any time soon, Sakura was worried: his eyes were in bad shape.

"Well?" Sasuke asked after a while. Sakura looked up from her notes, and realized that she had stopped writing on her notepad several minutes and just been staring into it since then.

Sakura didn't particularly relish the idea of telling an Uchiha that he had been misusing the Sharingan – but she didn't really have any other choice. She had to make him realize the magnitude of the problem.

"It's… pretty bad." Sakura sighed. "I can tell from the nerves around your eyes that you've been using the Sharingan wrecklessly for the past god knows how many years." _Seven years, I bet,_ Sakura thought to herself. It had been seven years since he had left to be trained under Orochimaru. For seven long years, Sasuke probably used his Sharingan constantly; she knew that he knew, even in his state of hunger for more power, that Orochimaru was not to be trusted. Sasuke wouldn't have let down his guards around him – or anyone else since Orochimaru's death.

He had lived around enemies for the past seven years, and his eyes probably hadn't rested for much – if any – of those years.

Sakura fought the urge of sadness that waved over her as she thought this. It would be the height of stupidity to give into her emotions right now. She would not – could not – show herself to be weak in front of him now that he was letting her study his eyes. He might change his mind if he thought that she was still the silly girl he had known in their genin days. So she plowed through with her explanation of the examination of his eyes.

"You won't be going on missions that require the use of your eyes for a while, I'd imagine. That's really the best thing for your eyes right now – rest. In the meantime, I'm going to try and see what I can do to reverse the damage that's been done, but I have no idea how long that's going to take. The Sharingan is… complicated." Sakura said this last sentence almost as if she was talking to herself. "But if you ever use the Sharingan – though, as I said, I really don't see why you'd need to, for the time being – please come see me in the hospital. I can try to alleviate the tension that using the Sharingan is causing your eye, and at least that way, your eyes won't worsen as fast as it would otherwise."

Sakura knew that Sasuke wasn't thrilled about any of the things she had just outlined to him, but breathed a sigh of relief when he gave a small nod to indicate that he would do what she asked. She gave him a smile and got up. In doing so, she happened to glance at the clock – it was now half past one in the morning. Naruto would probably be asleep when she got to his apartment.

"Have you seen Naruto today?" Sakura asked Sasuke. She was sure that he had; Sakura knew that Naruto made it a point to spend as much time as he could with Sasuke, since, if left alone, Sasuke would never seek out anyone's company voluntarily.

"Hn." Sasuke gave a grunt that Sakura took as an affirmative. She almost laughed at the disgruntled look Sasuke wore – she could only imagine how much Naruto aggravated and annoyed Sasuke all day.

But there was also something in Sasuke's expression that let her know that he didn't really mind Naruto annoying him, and for that, Sakura was happy.

As she moved toward Sasuke's door, she felt a wave of tiredness hit her. Stifling a yawn, Sakura gave a final smile and wave to Sasuke and left for Naruto's.

* * *

Sakura let herself in Naruto's apartment with the spare key, which he had entrusted to her years ago.

"Sakura-chan?"

Sakura was surprised to hear Naruto calling her name from his room. Naruto usually was not a late sleeper.

"What are you doing still up?" Sakura approached his bed, where the blond was laying down.

Naruto yawned. "I was out in the training grounds a few hours ago and ran into Hinata… then she started talking to me, and I guess we lost track of time. I got home a few minutes ago." Naruto looked at Sakura, then frowned. "Sakura-chan, you look really tired. Tsunade-baachan said she was worried about you… she said you've been working almost non-stop at the hospital!"

Sakura smiled at him, hoping to reassure him. "I'm fine, Naruto. I just have a lot of stuff to catch up on from when I was in Suna, but I won't be working so much when I get done with that." She didn't add that she didn't know when exactly she would ever be done with the never-ending mountain of paperwork. Instead, she decided to tease her friend a little. "So, late night chat with Hinata, huh? How was that?"

"It was alright, I guess… she just asked me a lot of questions. She sure is curious," Naruto replied, a little confused. Sakura wanted to laugh and sigh at the same time at him. When would he ever wake up and realize that Hinata was in love with him?

Sakura sat down next to the bed and let her head and arms rest on the side of it. She was about to ask him about his conversation with Hinata some more, but he interrupted her.

"But back to you, Sakura-chan… I've barely seen you these past few days! You never leave the hospital. Even Sasuke-teme's worried about you."

Sakura's head snapped up. "What?" She said, almost laughing. "He would never say that out loud."

Naruto grinned. "I know, but I can tell. We're all worried Sakura-chan… so try to get out of work every once in a while and hang out with us, okay?"

Sakura smiled at her friend. "You really don't need to worry – I'm fine. But I promise, as soon as I can take some time off, I'll spend the day with you all."

Sakura could feel her eyes getting heavy. Despite what she told Naruto, she _was_ tired… Before long, she was out cold, and so was Naruto. They fell asleep like that, with Sakura resting on the bed and sitting on the floor, and Naruto on the edge of the bed with his head close to Sakura's.

The last thought before Sakura passed out completely was that she was inexplicably glad that Sasuke had worried about her.

Maybe there was hope yet for Team 7.

* * *

A/N: As always, thanks to everyone who is still reading this story! But please, if you're reading this and haven't left a review, do it! (Even if you've already left a review, please keep leaving me revies :D) This story has been getting a steady stream of 200-300 visitors and views per chapter, which is so awesome, yet I only have a little over 10 reviews D: I want to hear your feedback!


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

"Sasuke, I can feel you staring into my face, you know."

This was their second session, and she had been probing into his nerves for quite some time through chakra. However, whenever she opened her eyes to write down notes, she saw Sasuke's eyes staring unwaveringly at her face. "If you're bored, you can read a book or something."

She had to admit that it was kind of unnerving to have him staring at her for so long.

"You have scars on your face."

When Sakura heard Sasuke's words, she couldn't really think of anything to do other than blink blankly at him. "I know."

It was then she noticed that Sasuke's face was as porcelain and perfect as it had been seven years ago. _He would have been a pretty girl,_ Sakura found herself thinking. She then pictured the scowl Sasuke direct toward her if she ever shared that particular thought. She smiled to herself.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her, silently questioning what she was smiling at. Though his scowl would have been amusing, Sakura decided to keep that thought to herself – for now. "You were looking at my scars?" She asked instead of answering his nonverbal question.

"I thought you could heal."

Sakura willed herself from slapping Sasuke's head like she would have done to Naruto. "I _can_," she said with measured patience, "but I got these scars on my face when I first started training with Tsunade-sama, and I didn't really know how to heal yet back then. And it's not like I was going to go to the hospital or bother shishou for these kinds of cuts."

Sakura closed her notepad. "Okay, I think that's all for today. Oh, hey, I heard Tsunade-sama's letting you spar with Naruto tomorrow."

The long process of calming down the other Kages was now drawing to a close. As of tomorrow, Sasuke's quasi-house arrest ban would be lifted, and he would be allowed to train. Naruto had burst into Sakura's office excitedly earlier that day, screaming with joy about his plans to "crush" Sasuke at their sparring session tomorrow.

Sakura was glad that Sasuke would be able to train now. She knew that he was getting irritated and anxious with sitting in his apartment all day. "Come see me in the hospital after you and Naruto train, okay? I don't imagine you two sparring would end nicely on either of your bodies."

She was making significant progress on her work load, and was actually hopeful that she wouldn't have as much to do tomorrow at all. She could see the light at the end of the paper work-filled tunnel, and it put her in a good mood.

Sasuke scoffed. "The dobe is the one who'll need to go to the hospital, not me."

"You know, Naruto said the same thing about you." Sakura laughed.

* * *

The next day, Sakura regretted laughing off both of Naruto's and Sasuke's comments about putting the other one in the hospital when Kakashi appeared in her office to inform her that the two boys did indeed need a medic, but weren't exactly in the best conditions to transport themselves to the hospital from the training grounds.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Sakura growled at Naruto and Sasuke when she saw them. She quickly scanned the two bruised and battered boys with her eyes and could tell that the two definitely had broken ribs – among other things – judging from their harsh breathing patterns. The two were currently lying down on the grass, and the training ground was pretty much destroyed.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto panted out with difficulty, "I definitely won!"

"You wish." Sasuke spat out, also with difficulty.

Sakura shook her head. "_Sparring_ doesn't mean beating the bloody daylight out of each other, you idiots."

Sakura saw that Sasuke was definitely not pleased to be called an idiot, but he couldn't really do anything but glare at her in his state.

"And Kakashi!" Sakura turned around to the silver-haired jonin, who flinched upon being called. "You should have stopped them instead of being too busy buried in that stupid book of yours. Don't even try to deny it." She added as Kakashi opened his mouth to protest. He promptly closed it and did his best to look remorseful – and failed.

Sighing, Sakura turned her attention on the two boys that were stretched out on the ground – which had seen better days. The terrain of the field looked significantly different now than Sakura remembered it. "I liked this training field." She muttered to herself as she got down to do an overall examination of the boys to make sure that none of their injuries were particularly life threatening. To her relief, while they did have many broken bones and ribs, the injuries weren't dire. "Do yourselves a favor and try to stay out of Tsunade's way for a while. If she found out that you guys beat each other to this state for your little 'sparring' session, you might not ever be allowed to spar with each other again. I'm not going to heal the bones fully; it's really best to let them heal completely on their own, so I'm just going to restore them to their functional states, but you should both take it easy for the next couple of days."

She healed Naruto first, then Sasuke, mainly because Sakura knew that Naruto would whine more than Sasuke if the blonde were the one who was left in pain longer. After being healed, both of the boys were able to get up and move around, but Sakura definitely saw them wincing a bit with some of the movements.

Sakura sighed outwardly, but inside, she was happier than she had been in months. Seeing Naruto and Sasuke being so idiotically typical together brought back memories of Team 7 in their genin days.

* * *

A week passed by. Sakura was still mostly at the hospital, but her work load was getting pretty manageable now. She was also able to make sense of most of the Sharingan's effects on the eyes' nerves now, meaning that she would soon be able to start working on ways to improve the eyes' functions, as opposed to merely studying its nature and effects on the body.

"Hey, Forehead," came a voice from Sakura's office doorway, "Tsunade-sama said I would find you here."

"Way to come see me two whole days after your mission, Pig." Sakura put her pen down and swiveled her chair to face the doorway. "How was it, anyway? You didn't bully Shikamaru too much, I hope. Temari could kick your ass, you know."

Ino snorted. "Chyeah, I'd like to see her try." Ino lifted herself casually up on Sakura's desk and took a seat there. She thumbed through Sakura's pile of work. "So." Ino played absently with the papers. "Sasuke's back, huh."

Sakura nodded. "Have you seen him yet?"

"Yeah. Shika, Chouji, and I ran into Naruto and Sasuke in the training grounds. And Team Guy was with them, too." Ino replied. She finally looked up at Sakura. "How is he?"

"Well, you said you saw him." Sakura frowned. "Why, did something happen?"

Ino waved her hand, indicating a negative. "No, it was… fine, actually. He seemed fine. It's just weird, having him back after all these years."

Sakura laughed. "I know. But I could get used to it. I mean, he's still not a talker or anything by any means, and doesn't really socialize well… but it's nice having him back. It makes Naruto really happy."

Ino looked at her friend. "And what about you? Does it make you happy, too?"

Ino's question caught Sakura off guard. _Was_ she happy? She couldn't remember the last time she had a full night's rest or didn't feel tired. She was still working over twelve hours a day in the hospital, and she didn't get to see her friends as often as she would have liked.

And yet, Sakura found that, deep inside, she really was happy – her friend that she loved like a brother had _his_ brother back, and both of them were alive and well. She had been so afraid for Team 7 for years, and the fear had only increased when Asuma was killed. Even though Sasuke hadn't been in Konoha for years, Sakura had always known that, somewhere out there, he was alive. When Sakura saw how empty Team Asuma was without their sensei, and how angry and sad Ino had been, she became so afraid that that would be Team 7's story, too – that her team would never be complete again.

But after all these years, her team was once again in the same village. They were safe and together.

So yes, Sakura _was_ happy. Happier than she had been in years, even if she was more tired than she ever had been.

"Yeah, Ino. It makes me happy, too."

Ino grinned at her best friend. "Good."

* * *

"Huh. Well, at least nothing seems broken this time… I'd call that a progress." Sakura teased.

She was, once again, at Sasuke's place. She had heard from Tsunade that most of Konoha 11 and Sasuke had been sparring earlier that day together. Sakura had a lot of work at the hospital that day, and she took it as a good sign that none of them came into the hospital and that she wasn't called to the training grounds.

Sasuke shot Sakura a glare for her teasing tone, but it was met only with laughter on Sakura's end as she scribbled some notes down in her notepad. Sakura thought back to her twelve-year-old self and how devastated she would have been to receive that glare.

Change wasn't all that bad, after all.

"Did Lee challenge you to spar with him? I heard he was all excited to prove that 'hard work beats talent' after all these years." Sakura asked good-naturedly.

"Hn." Sasuke gave his trademark response. "He got slower."

Sakura gave him an exasperated look. "No, he didn't, Sasuke. It's just that you've gotten too damn fast." From his remarks, she could picture the outcome of the spar between Lee and Sasuke – and she could also picture a determined Lee doing something ridiculous, like sprinting through Konoha five hundred times on his hands to push himself further after the loss. _I guess I'll be seeing Lee in the hospital soon,_ Sakura mused drily to herself. "I wish I could go to the training grounds… I haven't trained in so long. Or gone on real missions." She sighed wistfully.

"You don't like being a medic?"

Sakura was always surprised to hear a question from Sasuke, especially if the question was asking something about herself. "No, I do. I like healing. It's a lot better than killing." She paused. "That's why I resisted joining ANBU for so long."

From Sasuke's expression, Sakura could tell that Sasuke was surprised. She felt both pleasure and bitterness from his surprise – pleasure because she liked that she had managed to surprise the ever-stoic Uchiha.

And bitterness that he hadn't been around for the past seven years to know that she was worthy of being in the prestigious, elite group of shinobi.

But Sakura quickly shrugged the bitterness off – he didn't really know her nineteen-year-old self yet. She couldn't possibly expect him to have a higher expectation of her than her genin days had proved her to be.

For that reason, she offered Sasuke an explanation. Because she wanted him to know the present Sakura – she didn't want to live in the past anymore.

"Ibiki was pretty persistent about me joining. He said it would be a lot easier for me to treat the ANBU members if I joined myself, since I wouldn't have to play around the whole anonymity thing with the members that were brought to me to be treated, and he really wanted more medics. Offered to sponsor and train me for the exams himself, actually."

Sakura caught Sasuke's pointed stare that was directed at her upper arm – it was free of the swirly ANBU tattoo.

"I didn't fail, if that's what you're asking." Sakura said quietly. She wondered if there would be a way for her to smash a mountain with her bare fist in front of Sasuke without making it seem like she was showing off. "I got Tsunade to get Ibiki off my back. That was the third and last request I made of shishou." Sakura added the last bit as if she was talking to herself rather than Sasuke.

"What were the first two?"

Sasuke didn't really know why he kept asking Sakura questions. He usually wasn't a very curious person, especially regarding the weakest member of his former team.

Or was she the _formerly_ weakest member of his former team? Sasuke knew it was foolish of him to think that Sakura wouldn't have changed in the span of seven years, yet he never really gave much thought to what the grown-up version of the kunoichi would be like during his years away from Konoha.

He could now begin to see that she was almost a completely different girl than the one he had left behind on the bench all those years ago.

"My first request to shishou was for her to take me as her apprentice." Sakura replied simply. "My second request... was for her to step down from her position as Hokage on her terms."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that she wouldn't wait around for death to find her before she stepped down – like the Third did. I made that request the night Naruto beat Madara. I think," Sakura paused, then went on thoughtfully, "shishou and I both knew that Naruto would become the Hokage even before he beat Madara and became an official hero. But – I don't know, something about that moment when everyone was cheering for him made me think about what his Hokage inauguration would be like. And I knew that I wouldn't want that occasion to have any bad ties to it – such as shishou having died right before it. So I told Tsunade-sama that I hope she can have the foresight to know when her time was up."

"So you think the dobe's actually going to become the Hokage after her?" Sasuke found himself asking. The blonde idiot had been shouting about wanting to become the Hokage for over a decade now.

"I don't think it, Sasuke. I know it." As Sakura said these words, her face broke out into a smile – and this time, it wasn't a smile imbedded with tiredness. It was a genuine smile, the smile that radiated the kind of innocence Sasuke hadn't seen in a long time.

How was it that she could smile like that after everything she'd been through? Sasuke knew that Sakura must have seen many deaths by now – she had been a shinobi for years, and had lived through the Fourth Great Shinobi War. She was also a medic – she never seemed to leave that goddamned hospital if she could help it, and people often died in hospitals.

Yet when she smiled like that, Sasuke felt as if she was as untainted as the day he had met her in the Academy, shortly after his family's death.

He had hated her smile back then. He couldn't stand _anyone_'s innocence. After all, he had been forced to grow up overnight. _It wasn't fair that others got to keep their childhoods_, he had bitterly thought.

But now, thirteen years afterward, Sasuke found that he was inexplicably drawn to that same innocence that he had condemned even as a child himself.

Sasuke wondered what had changed in him since then.

* * *

Sakura realized that it had gotten late. "Oh, sorry. I've been babbling for a while now, I think." She got up. "But before I go, Sasuke, I heard from Tsunade-sama that you might be going out on missions soon. She's going to be keeping Team Kakashi as a permanent team if possible for the foreseeable future, so you'll be assigned in my place. Sai had to be called for a back-to-back solo mission, so he's still gone, but once he gets back, he'll be your teammate too." Sakura frowned a little to herself as she tried to picture what Sai would say to Sasuke upon meeting him – the former ROOT member was nothing if not unpredictable in his social interactions. "Anyway, what I wanted to tell you was for you to come see me before your mission when you do get it. I'll relieve the built-up tension around your eyes just in case you have to use the Sharingan during the mission. And if you do use it, make sure to come see me afterwards, too. I can't have you undoing my progress on your eyes, you know." She teasingly wagged a finger at him.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted noncommittally, but that was good enough for Sakura. _Language barriers_, she told herself as she inwardly shook her head at the stubborn and proud Uchiha's way of giving affirmative answers.

Some things never changed.

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far! I am equally grateful and appreciative of all of you, but I just wanted to single out a couple reviewers so that I can answer a few things that they have specifically addressed in my writing:

Dear** Anon** that has pointed out the nature of the Sharingan: I'm sorry, I haven't really stuck to the original on the fact that the EMS doesn't seem to damage the eyes. A fanfic writer's gotta take some liberties, after all :D I hope you can look beyond that!

Dear** the Tum Tum Tree**: Thanks for your in-depth criticism! I wanted to address all the things that you brought up. Firstly, about me creating dramatic moments, then the tension becoming lost – I'm sorry, I guess that's just my writing style, haha. I like an introspective view rather than a dialogue, but perhaps I can work on that for the future. Second, about the particulars of Sakura's living arrangement – all will be revealed in due time! All of those things that you pointed out are very valid; but please have some patience and bear with me, as I planned to explore all of that later on Thirdly, Sakura is the one administering to the hospital because she is the director of it. She has been put in charge of it for a reason; It's kind of like the fact that Shizune is Tsunade's assistant – and a very busy one at that – yet Tsunade still has a mountainous load of work to do as Hokage, you know? That kind of goes hand-in-hand with your Sakura needing a secretary thing. Also, this is post-Fourth Shinobi War (it has been a few years since the war, though) and medics were already rare as it is; therefore, Sakura would need to pull longer shifts to make up for the lack of staff – that's what I've decided, at least! Please know that I appreciated everything that you pointed out, and hope you'll keep enjoying the story!


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

"Please enlighten me," said Sakura as she frowned, "as to how it is that you come back from A and S-rank missions without a scratch most of the time, but come into my hospital bleeding after two days of being at _home_, Genma."

Genma laughed. "I just like to keep you guessing, Blossom." The senbon in his mouth moved fluidly along with the jonin's mouth as he talked.

"Yeah, well, could you please think of a different way to keep me guessing other than to drip blood from your hand on the floor?" Sakura countered drily, but she couldn't keep a straight face for long. Something about this man's lighthearted attitude toward everything reminded Sakura of Naruto, and his laughter made her want to laugh, too.

"Fine, fine." The jonin said good-naturedly. "But I gotta say, I feel pretty lucky about having you patch me up for a tiny gash. The word on the street is that it's damn hard to catch a glimpse of you these days." He winked at her. "You could always quit your work here if it gets overwhelming, you know. There's always a spot in my team for a beautiful medic."

"Uh huh... I'll keep that in mind, Shiranui." Sakura reached for a cotton swab and put on some anti-scarring medication on the tip of it. She then proceeded to smear it on the wound she had just healed on Genma's hand. "Maybe I shouldn't even be putting this on your hand right now. You could always just look at the scar left over from your clumsiness and reminisce about the time the 'beautiful medic' patched you up."

"Oh, I don't need a scar to help me remember you." Genma's eyes twinkled playfully.

Sakura couldn't help but laugh. Genma's flirty antics were famous – or infamous, really – across the village. His way with his words combined with his good looks probably made him and his womanizing ways more lovable than they should have been. "Careful, Genma. I don't want that red-headed kunoichi coming after me."

"What red-head?"

"The one I saw you with coming out of that bar a couple weeks ago." Sakura held up Genma's hand and observed her work. "She was just _thrilled_ when you yelled hi to me so loudly from across the street, by the way. You should know better than to greet another woman so cheerfully while you have your arm draped over another one, I would think."

"Ah, _her_. Well, I'll have you know that she got over that little incident as soon as I turned my attention back on her." Genma winked at the pink-haired girl who was examining his hand still. "I have my ways of making women forgive me."

"Oh, I just bet." Sakura dropped his hand and raised an eyebrow at him. "You know, you're not half as inappropriate to me when Kakashi's around."

"Hey, we're all grown-ups here, Blossom." The brown-haired jonin grinned at her. "And I don't flirt with you in front of Kakashi because that bastard would probably dismember my limbs in my sleep if I did."

"But you don't think I could dismember your limbs?"

"I think you're too charmed by me to do such a thing to me," Genma replied as he shot her another grin, "but we both know Kakashi's got an ice cold heart for anyone that comes close to his favorite kunoichi student."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I'm his _only_ kunoichi student. And where did you get the idea that I'm charmed by you, Genma?" She got up from her chair. "You're all fixed up, so feel free to proceed with, uh, _charming _some other kunoichi in town tonight."

"Aw, you don't mean that, Blossom." Genma winked at her again. "Come on, I'll buy you dinner. Ditch work."

Sakura laughed. Truth be told, she really didn't mind Genma – she liked him, even. He was harmless and fun. But a meal with Genma always involved alcohol, and she would need her wits about her for going over to Sasuke's later to continue their Sharingan session. "I know you well enough to know that 'dinner' to you means 'getting drunk,' Genma."

"Come on, it's just wrong for the Godaime's apprentice to turn down a drink. I promise I won't dishonor your virtues… or has some lucky man taken your virtues already? I never did find that out."

"Genma!" Sakura smacked his arm.

"Sorry, sorry, you just make it too easy for me, Blossom." Genma held his arms up, as if surrendering. "But in all seriousness, let me buy you dinner. I know you've been cooped up in this hospital for way too long today. And you might be sorry if you turn down my offer tonight and then some day down the road, I never return from a mission, you know." His eyes twinkled mischievously. "I know you'll miss me."

Sakura had no idea why she wasn't more repulsed by this man's excessive confidence and flirting, but she in the past couple of years, she had come to find that she genuinely did enjoy his company whenever he was around. Everything about Genma was just so – free. She envied that about him, and the envious feeling made her gravitate toward the man who was still very much a boy. It was hard to believe that he was Kakashi's age.

"You're in luck." Sakura finally decided to give in. "I actually don't have any work that I need to do tonight here, and I _am_ pretty hungry… Better get your wallet ready, Shiranui."

"Lucky me, indeed, kid."

* * *

"Fourteen."

Genma whistled. "Huh. That's pretty young, Blossom. I guess the Godaime really did want to teach you everything she knows."

"It's a stressful business we're in, what can I say." Sakura shrugged. "Fourteen to a shinobi is like a lifetime for a civilian… or at least that's what shishou told me when she kept encouraging me to start drinking at that age."

"Kakashi didn't say anything?"

Sakura laughed – a bit more bitterly than she had meant to. "Please. I didn't see that man more than a handful of times during that period." She took another swig of sake. She hadn't meant to start drinking – she really had intended on only eating with Genma.

But she hadn't drank in such a long time, and sake was her weak spot. As a shinobi - and a human being, in general - Sakura knew that an excessive fondness for alcohol was taboo. She really did her best to control her longing for sake on most days, but Genma had persuaded her to take just one drink - which turned into many drinks, before she knew it.

Genma really was a persuasive man. No wonder so many women salivated after him.

As she drank, Genma stole a look at the kunoichi. He was surprised at the bitter tone he heard in her laughter as she said that. He hadn't really known her until the war, when she more or less saved his life on the field as he was about to bleed to death. They had remained playful acquaintances since then, but now he realized that he didn't know much about her life before the war, other than that she had been a part of Kakashi's genin team.

Actually, he didn't really know about her life after the war, either, other than that she put in ridiculous hours in that hospital of hers.

"How's your team doing?"

Sakura blinked. "My team? Don't you see them around more than I do? You said it yourself - I don't get out of the hospital much." She took another swig of alcohol. "God, I can't remember the last time I had enough time to get drink." In her slightly inebriated state, the word "team" tugged at her brain. Team… her team….

Sasuke.

_Crap._

"Shit, shit, shit." Sakura frantically started cursing, startling Genma. "What time is it? I completely spaced out…"

"It's half past ten." He offered helpfully, to which Sakura let out another stream of curses.

"I had to be somewhere half an hour ago." Sakura groaned as she got to her feet – only to promptly have to lean on the arm Genma extended out to her. _Shit_, _I can't be drunk,_ she chastised herself.

"Hey, Blossom, looks like you're kind of down for the count for the night," observed Genma as he tried to help Sakura stay on her feet. "I'll take you home."

Sakura shook her head violently. "No, I can't…" Her refusal was not in the least because she didn't even like going to her own home. "I don't want to keep him waiting… he's not really patient."

Suddenly, Sakura wondered if Sasuke was even waiting for her. Would he even care if she didn't show up? "…I don't like to renege on promises." She said softly.

Genma looked at her. His expression softened involuntarily as he took in her worried face. "Sakura," he began gently, "if anyone's allowed to skip out on an appointment every now and then, it's you."

_Sakura_, he had called her. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't call her by his usual teasing nickname for her.

Or maybe it was the fact that his voice right now was gentler than she had ever heard it.

Regardless of the reason, Sakura found herself wanting to agree with Genma. She had been working so much for the past few weeks. For the past few _years_. She normally liked her job, she really did. But she couldn't help but want to be a kid again every now and then. She always felt like she hadn't really been a kid in years – and she was only nineteen.

But for a shinobi, nineteen years was enough to hold a lifetime's worth of burdens and sadness.

_Genma hides it well, though_, thought Sakura. Something about the lack of sadness in the man made Sakura want to keep drinking with him tonight. She missed drinking – and she missed talking to someone who actually enjoyed talking.

Sasuke could only say so much at a time, after all.

"I can send a message to whomever it is you were meeting up with." Genma broke her thoughts. "And I'll take you home."

Sakura regarded him. He looked so earnest in that moment that she decided to trust him.

_And Sasuke wouldn't miss me anyway._

"Okay," she consented, "but I don't want to go home."

She sat back down on her stool and smiled at the jonin next to her. "I want to drink."

* * *

**A/N**: Huge thanks to everyone who have reviewed, especially** miyako saku**, who has left three reviews so far!

I do want to stress that I beg of you to leave reviews – without it, I seriously get discouraged from writing. I've hit over 3500 views on the story, which is so great, but I would really love to know what each of the people who have viewed the story think about it. I know it's impossible to hope that everyone leaves a review, but please, if you do truly enjoy the story, let me know what you think. Otherwise, I'm not sure if I can continue writing! :O

ADDED A/N : almost 4500 views on the story now. Only 20 reviews?! Tell me what you guys think, dammit! (Please with a kitten on top!)


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

Uchiha Sasuke had a lot of things he disliked.

One of those things was waiting. Patience had never been his strong suit.

And by now, he had been kept waiting for over half an hour. _Where is she_, he growled to himself as he tried to focus on the scroll in front of him that he was supposed to be reading.

Sakura was a punctual person. What was keeping her tonight? Had something happened?

When the thought of something happening to Sakura flashed through his head, Sasuke caught himself picturing various scenarios in which the girl could've been accosted on the way to his place.

He quickly shook that thought out. She was a kunoichi, for kami's sake. If she couldn't even defend herself –

_But she uses a lot of chakra at the hospital sometimes, doesn't she?_ She could be too drained to fight back… Sasuke caught himself from advancing further in his thoughts. He felt – _annoyed_. He was annoyed that he had been waiting for half an hour.

And he was annoyed that he was actually worried about her. _What the hell is going on right now? _he thought, almost angry at himself.

Suddenly, his attention snapped to his living room window. There was someone there.

"Oy, Uchiha. Long time no see. Don't hit me or anything; I'm only a bunshin."

_Genma, his name was, wasn't it?_ Sasuke vaguely recalled the senbon-chewing jonin from his chunin exam seven years ago. True to his fashion, Sasuke offered no greeting. Was Genma here with a message from the Hokage?

"Sakura told me she was supposed to meet you at ten." At the mention of Sakura's name, Sasuke's gaze – which had been regarding the bunshin Genma with cool disinterest – blazed up for a second. _Interesting_, Genma noted. He then continued on with the rest of the message. "She's incredibly sorry, but she's – ah, unable to come tonight. She said she'll find you some time tomorrow." Ever the troublemaker, Genma decided to add another sentence before departing. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of her tonight. Ja ne."

With a puff of smoke, the bunshin was gone, and Sasuke was left to stare at the spot Genma had been.

* * *

"Ay, ay, Blossom. Slow down."

Sakura laughed. Her own laughter sounded strange to herself; she sounded… young. "I'm already drunk, Genma. Might as well go all the way." She set down the bottle of alcohol she had just emptied, and opened a new one. "Cheers."

Genma shook his head, though smiling. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen Sakura look so uninhibited. Whenever he had managed to catch her in the hospital or the Hokage Tower, she always looked stressed and busy. Genma had always thought that Sakura didn't really look like a teenager; she looked too weighed down.

But now, as her green eyes shone brightly and her chimes of laughter rang out constantly, Genma could see that Sakura was still just a girl. Whatever she had been bogged down by in the past, whatever she had accomplished as a kunoichi, she was, at the end of the day, still just a nineteen year old girl who wanted to be carefree and young.

He liked this Sakura.

* * *

An hour later, he was supporting Sakura with his arm around her waist and holding up her arm by draping it across his shoulders. "Blossom, I have no idea where you live."

Genma wasn't entirely sure, for Sakura was slurring pretty hard by now, but he thought he heard her mumble, "I don't really live anywhere."

"What does that even mean? You gotta go somewhere after your dreadful shifts at the hospital, kid."

Sakura looked up hazily into Genma's brown eyes. "Drop me off in my office, please."

_Okay, I guess she _doesn't_ go anywhere after her shifts?_ Genma stared at her. "Blossom, you're crazy if you think this is the kind of night you can spend on your desk. You need a bed, and probably an entire bottle of aspirin and a gallon of water in the morning."

"I slept on the bed in the basement morgue once…"

Now Genma stopped walking altogether. _Was she serious?_ He was definitely _not_ dropping her off in that hospital tonight.

* * *

When Sakura woke up, she briefly contemplated killing herself to dull the pain in her head.

"Fucking hell," she murmured to herself without even opening her eyes. She didn't want the light to attack her, anyway.

"For a such a pretty girl, you sure do curse like a sailor, Blossom."

Her eyes shot open at Genma's voice – only to promptly be shielded back into blindness with Sakura's hand. She had been right in not opening her eyes before – the rays of light that shone throughout the room felt like kunais stabbing into her eyes.

_Stabbing… eyes… _Sakura remembered with a jolt that she had blown Sasuke off last night. What the hell _was_ last night, anyway?

And was she in Genma's bed right now?

"Genma." she called to the jonin who casually sat himself down on the edge of the bed near her torso. "Please tell me I didn't sleep with you last night."

Genma burst out laughing. Sakura groaned at the volume. Her headache was going to be the death of her. "Don't worry, Blossom, I don't sleep with women when they're not really conscious. I like them to enjoy what's going on." He gently guided Sakura so that she could sit up. "Here, aspirin and water. You look like you need it."

Sakura gratefully took the glass of water and two pills from Genma. The water felt refreshing and cool to her parched throat. It was then that she finally opened her eyes again, only to come face to face with Genma.

He looked decidedly amused at Sakura's hangover. Much to her chagrin, he didn't seem to be affected by the drinking last night at all.

"Why aren't you in as much pain as I am?" Sakura groaned.

Genma laughed again. "Maybe because I didn't drink nearly as much as you did, kid. You really went to town with it last night. You're lucky I'm such a gentleman, Blossom – it wouldn't have been hard to take advantage of you when you're that drunk." His eyes, which had been twinkling mischievously, suddenly turned serious. "You should be more careful."

Sakura would've responded that she could take care of herself, but then she remembered that she didn't exactly have the best recollection of the previous night. So, biting back her will to argue, she resigned, instead. "I know, I know, I shouldn't have drunk so much." She paused. "The part about you being a gentleman's new to me, though. I'm surprised, Shiranui."

Genma's playful grin returned. "Don't tell anyone that you slept on my bed without me – my reputation will be ruined."

"I'm sure." Sakura rolled her eyes. "But really, Genma, you didn't have to give me the bed. I would've been fine on the couch – I'm sorry I ran you out of your own bed." The pink-haired girl smiled ruefully at the jonin. She really was grateful that he had taken such good care of her last night – grateful and surprised. Sakura knew that Genma wasn't a bad person by any means, but she hadn't pegged him to be so responsible.

He waved away her thanks. "It was nothing. Seriously. You've saved my life before, for kami's sake. Besides," he added, "I liked hanging out with you. You're entertaining when you're that drunk, Blossom."

Sakura laughed. "Well, you probably won't be seeing drunk Sakura again for a very, very long time. I feel terrible." She suddenly realized that she had no idea what time it was. "Shit, what time is it? I'm probably late as all hell."

"It's almost nine in the morning." Genma informed her. _She really has a hell of a sailor's mouth_, he thought amusedly. _Mini Tsunade, indeed._

"Fucking _hell,"_ cursed Sakura again as she leapt out of the bed, "I'm gonna borrow your shower, Genma! If you come into the bathroom at any time, I _will _punch you."

Genma heaved out a dramatic sigh. "You're no fun, Blossom."

* * *

Sakura vowed _never_ to drink again as she lay slumped over her desk that afternoon. Not only did she have a ton of work to catch up on – she was behind schedule on everything – but she also felt like absolute crap.

"Kill… me…." She mumbled to herself as she half-heartedly looked over her patient briefing files.

"As a friend, am I obligated to fulfill that request?"

Sakura shot up and wheeled her chair to face the window, where the voice had come from. Her tired – and hung over – face broke out into a big smile. "Sai!"

She ran over to her pasty friend whom she had not seen in months and embraced him in a tight hug. To his credit, the boy didn't hesitate in returning the hug.

Sakura thought fondly that he had come a long way in the four years that she had known him.

"I'm so happy you're finally home," said Sakura as she ruffled his black hair, "I missed you, you emotionally stunted idiot!"

Sai thought for a moment. "I think I missed you too, Ugly. I thought about you and Naruto while I was away."

"Have you seen Naruto yet? He'll be happy to have you back too – even though I'm sure you two will start arguing the moment you see each other." Sakura laughed. Even though she still had a migraine, she temporarily ignored the pain. She was just too excited about having Sai back.

"I did see him – and he did seem to have some angry reaction to my usual name for him. Strange, as you have adapted to the nickname 'Ugly' so well." At Sai's confused expression, Sakura only laughed harder. Her increased laughter only seemed to perplex the boy more, but he decided to plow through his narrative. "He was with Uchiha Sasuke. Tsunade-sama has briefed me on his return."

Sakura stopped laughing and regarded Sai with some wariness. "Dear kami, Sai. Please don't tell me you gave Sasuke one of your, uh, 'nicknames.'"

Sai blinked at her. "I didn't call him anything other than his given name. I wasn't sure that it'd be appropriate to give him a name based on a characteristic, as I wasn't sure that we would be friends in the future."

A frown appeared on Sakura's forehead. "What? Why aren't you sure?"

"Because he had betrayed the village and left years ago." Sai cocked his head at Sakura, as if uncertain as to why she even asked that question. "And he's made you and Naruto sad."

Sakura regarded her ex-ROOT friend in silence for a second before engulfing him in another hug. She didn't let go of him as she spoke. "Sai," she murmured into his chest, "here's another important lesson in friendship: friends forgive each other. But thank you for thinking of our feelings." Sakura let the boy go with one last squeeze around his middle.

"Friends forgive each other…" Sai repeated thoughtfully as he looked down at the pink-haired kunoichi. "I see. But I'm not sure that Sasuke and I will be friends. We have no bond together."

"You have Naruto and me." Sakura answered firmly. "You're our friend, right?" Sai nodded immediately. "So, transitively, the bond you share with us should mean that you share a bond with Sasuke, too, because he's also a friend of Naruto and mine."

The kunoichi watched as Sai tried to wrap his head around his new aspect of friendship. After a moment, he began nodding his head slowly. "Okay, I suppose that could make sense. I'll evaluate how I feel about Sasuke when I see him again with your explanation in mind."

Sakura smiled. "Good." She then looked toward her pile of work that was mounted atop her desk, then made a decision. _Nothing wrong with quitting while behind_, she thought exasperatedly to herself. "Come on, let's go eat something. You can tell me all about your missions and all the awkward encounters that happened while I haven't seen you."

* * *

Sakura and Sai were just walking out of a café near the hospital when she heard a delighted voice that cried out her name.

"Sakura-chan!" In a second, Naruto had wrapped his arm around Sakura's neck to draw her into a hug from the back. "Why does Sai get to eat with you but not me?" He pouted.

"Perhaps it signifies her penchant for my company instead of yours." Sai threw in nonchalantly.

Naruto scoffed. "As if! Everyone knows Sakura-chan likes me the best."

"Or maybe I don't like either of you idiots," Sakura suggested.

"Sakura-chan…" whined Naruto, feigning hurt. Then he let go of Sakura and yelled loudly, "Oy, teme! Get over here!"

_Sasuke?_ Sakura hadn't seen Sasuke yet that day to explain why she had to cancel their session last night. _Well, I guess now's my chance_, she thought as she saw his long, lean figure walk over toward them. Naruto must have been walking with him, but Sasuke hadn't picked up his pace like Naruto had when the blonde saw the pink-haired kunoichi and Sai.

"Sasuke-teme and I were just about to go get some ramen! But looks like you and Sai already ate, Sakura-chan." Naruto pouted again.

"We weren't going to get ramen, dobe. I'm not going to eat that stuff everyday like you," came Sasuke's voice. His eyes brushed over Sakura, but he looked away so quickly that Sakura wondered if she'd imagined him looking at her.

"Hi, Sasuke." She offered her standard greeting. "Um, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Sai looked from Sakura to Sasuke, then back at Sakura. He then turned to Naruto. "Come on, Dickless. In situations like these, I've been told that we are to move away several feet in order to give people privacy." He then dragged away an enraged and confused Naruto.

And then there were two.

* * *

**A/N:** As usual, thank you so so so much to everyone who has reviewed and left encouraging words! And a special thanks goes out to** Jeanette** - thank you for reviewing each chapter! It was really nice to read feedback on the individual plots :)

I have some really great romance and dramatic plots in store, but it's just taking a while to get there - and it's really hard to write if you guys don't review and show your support! more reviews = faster updates :) please leave a review if you are reading this!


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

Sasuke didn't say anything to her; he merely regarded her with something like disinterest and coolness.

Sakura wondered why his gaze looked so… cold.

She felt twelve again.

"I just wanted to apologize for not being able to make it last night." Sakura started, trying to ignore the fact that Sasuke was looking at her like that. "I really, really didn't mean to bail. It's just… something came up, and –" _Could this apology sound any lamer? _"– I promise I'll show up today." She ended with what she hoped was a full smile.

Sasuke's face was – as ever – impossible to read.

Mostly because he turned from her and started walking away right after she finished.

Sakura stared at him, and reached out and grabbed his wrist. "You're really not even going to give a even _grunt_ of acknowledgement?" She asked him with mixed feeling of confusion and annoyance. "Are you… actually _mad_ at me?"

"Let go, Sakura." Sasuke said warningly.

Her grip only tightened. "I will as soon as you say something to me."

"Such as?"

"Anything. That you accept my apology – or that you don't. That you're angry – or that you're not. _Whatever_." Sakura didn't really know why she was getting this heated over his lack of talking. After all, this was Sasuke – he had never been one for conversation.

But she had thought that they had gotten closer in the past few days. Sasuke had even gone so far as to ask her about herself – and now his wordless, cold demeanor was back.

She _hated_ feeling like she was twelve.

Because the truth was, she most definitely was no longer twelve. She had grown up. She was strong now.

And she _would_ make Sasuke acknowledge her apology.

"Fine, I accept your apology. Now get off of me, Sakura." Sasuke's eyes held defiance and menace. He didn't like to be told what to do.

"No, because it's clear that you _don't_ accept it. What the hell, Sasuke? I said I'm sorry, and I really am. It won't happen again."

By now, Naruto and Sai, who had been standing around and bickering a few feet away from them, had diverted their attention to Sasuke and Sakura. Sai was looking at the pair with clinical interest, while a confused frown formed in Naruto's face.

Sasuke was now facing Sakura. "Stop being annoying."

"No, not until _you_ stop being annoying yourself, Sasuke."

He opened his mouth to speak once more, but at that moment a gentle wind blew past Sakura toward him – and his eyes turned hard and angry.

_What the hell?_ Sakura wondered at this sudden change, and in her wondrous state, Sasuke managed to pry himself off of the pink-haired girl.

He took off, and was gone in a second.

"Sakura-chan, what was that about?" Naruto asked as he quickly made his way back to Sakura's side.

Sakura herself couldn't even explain what just happened. "I… don't know." She shook her head. "Sasuke being Sasuke, I guess."

Sai seemed to be caught up in contemplation of a concept he couldn't quite grasp. "Ugly, I'll walk with you back to the hospital. I have a few questions."

The pink-haired medic smiled warily. "Okay. I'll see you later, Naruto?"

"Yeah, I should probably go see where the teme ran off to… Don't let the bastard get to you, whatever he did, okay, Sakura-chan?" With a bright smile and a squeeze on her shoulder, Naruto took off.

"Alright, Sai, hit me with it," said Sakura as the two of them made their way back to the hospital.

"From what I could overhear –"

"I'm not sure that there's a point to you giving us privacy if you only move away just enough to still overhear everything, Sai," interrupted Sakura, rolling her eyes.

Sai nodded. "I see. I'll make a note of that. Anyway, it seems that you have broken a promise with Sasuke to meet up with him and apologized to him."

"Uh huh." _Unforgiving bastard,_ thought Sakura while she gritted her teeth.

"But why was Sasuke so cold to you?"

"Because," Sakura refrained from substituting Sasuke's name with a foul word, "Sasuke was really annoyed about me not showing up, I guess. Who would've thought the great Uchiha would be peeved about little ol' me blowing him off?"

"But, Ugly," Sai looked at her with confusion, "you said friends forgive each other."

Sakura didn't have anything to say for a bit. When she finally opened her mouth, it was laced with irritation. "I guess that's a one-way street when it comes to Sasuke and me."

She'd basically forgiven him for skipping out on the village for seven years, and he was mad about _one night_? Now that Sai had brought it up, Sakura could feel anger rising at Sasuke.

_The nerve of that one._

* * *

As Sakura stood in front of the door, she contemplated just going back. She didn't have to knock. She didn't have to go in.

_But you do,_ an annoying voice tugged at her brain. _You have to heal Kakashi and his eyes, even if you're mad at Sasuke._

Sakura inwardly groaned. She hated having to be the bigger person.

Bracing herself, she knocked.

She waited.

No answer.

She knocked again – harder, this time.

No answer _still._

_You've got to be fucking kidding me, Sasuke._ Irritated beyond belief, Sakura irrationally considered punching through his door.

_But would it really be irrational?_

Sakura was never the model of patience or even-temperedness. When she was younger, she tried to mask her real personality by acting sweet on the outside to everyone, while the Inner Sakura would prance around in anger in her mind. As the years went by, Sakura outgrew her need to please everybody, and – with a little help from the infamously-blunt Tsunade herself – Sakura's Inner had ceased to exist merely in her mind.

She did whatever she wanted and said whatever she wanted now. She wasn't a simpering twelve-year-old anymore.

So she decided to punch through Sasuke's door.

Sakura lifted her chakra-laden fist and punched with all her might –

- Only to narrowly miss Sasuke's head.

* * *

Sasuke hadn't been sure if Sakura would show up tonight. He knew that he had been colder with her than necessary – after all, she had been coming to his house consistently to work on his eyes even after her long shifts. If she took one night off, he should have been able to shrug it off.

But he couldn't shrug it off. He couldn't shrug off the odd, empty feeling he had when she didn't show up. He couldn't shrug off the irritation he felt at being told that she won't be coming that night.

And he definitely couldn't shrug off that Genma had said the jonin would be with her that night.

Most of all, he couldn't shrug off the fact that he could smell Genma's scent on Sakura's hair when the wind blew while they were talking.

Sasuke hated that he couldn't shrug off any of these feelings. He didn't want to think about the whys – he didn't want to think about it, _period._

Out of his irritation, he considered not even letting Sakura into his apartment that night. But once her knocks had become more forced, Sasuke remembered that she was now known for her monstrous strength – and he had become used to having a door attached to his door frame.

So he opened the door, and, had he not been as fast as he was, he definitely would've gotten his face – and skull – smashed in by her fist.

At any rate, he caught her fist just in time before it his face.

And, instead of breaking his face, it broke every bone in his hand.

Sakura heard the cracking of the bones – it was _loud._

"Are you bloody _crazy,_ Uchiha?!" Sakura saw the pain clearly in his face, but he seemed to be refusing to make any sounds. _Typical._

He did, however, shoot her a murderous glare at being questioned about his sanity from the girl who had tried to break his door – and succeeded in breaking his hand. He wondered if he would ever be able to use his hand again. Sasuke could feel the fractures up to his elbow in addition to the broken bones in his actual hand.

Sakura got to work quickly – she knew she had little time to set the bones right before his hand would be useless to him. She shuddered to think what would have happened if he hadn't caught her fist in time. Without saying a word, she sat Sasuke and herself down on the floor of the foyer of the apartment and started emitting green chakra from her own hands to his.

_Shit_. His bones weren't just broken – they were _crushed. _

She had to try very hard to feel concerned for it, rather than gloating over the fact that she had managed to crush Uchiha Sasuke's hand.

_He would literally kill me if I looked even a little bit smug right now,_ she thought as she put on her best poker face. But –

"You know, Sasuke, maybe you should've opened your door when I first knocked."

Oops. She couldn't help it.

"Maybe you shouldn't try to break through doors when people are trying to ignore you on the other side," Sasuke growled out, but failed to sound very menacing, as Sakura could hear the grimace in his voice.

He was in pain.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke." Sakura said quietly. She genuinely _was _sorry that she had hurt him. She never wanted to cause her friends pain – even if the friend happened to be a giant, moody mystery to her.

Sasuke said nothing in return, but Sakura let that go, as she was too busy fixing his hand to chat, anyway. The pink-haired medic was tired – she hadn't had much sleep in what seemed like forever, and had spent half the day being hung over and the rest trying to catch up on the work she had neglected due to being hung over. She had performed several little surgeries already that day, and all of these things combined left her chakra tank pretty low.

She didn't have a large chakra reserve to begin with. If she hadn't had such great control over her chakra, Sakura was sure that she would only have been an average kunoichi at best, even with Tsunade's training. Because she could exercise such precise control over chakra, however, she was able to stretch out the chakra that she did possess to last longer.

Fixing the crushed and fractured bones in Sasuke's hand – all the way up to his elbow, actually – tested Sakura's chakra. She hated to admit that as simple a thing as fixing broken bones was pushing her – but it was. It was the end of the day, and she was just so, so _tired._

It seemed to take forever, especially considering the silence between the two of them, but, eventually, Sakura finished her work on Sasuke.

"It should be alright now, but I'd advise that you don't really use that hand for anything for the next couple of days," told Sakura as she slumped up against a wall. She was still on the floor of Sasuke's foyer – she as absolutely drained.

Sasuke silently got up from the floor, and looked at Sakura expectantly. When she made no motion to move, he raised his eyebrow at her.

She waved him away. "Yeah, yeah, I'll get up soon. I just need to rest for a little… I don't think I'm up for using any more chakra on you tonight, so I'm gonna just head home in a bit." Sakura yawned. "Are you actually going to open the door tomorrow so that we can avoid this whole ordeal? Or perhaps you'd like to make it a daily thing." She could feel her eyelids getting heavier.

"Sakura, you're falling asleep."

"No, I'm not." she protested, "You're just saying that to avoid answering my question."

But she knew that really couldn't keep her eyes open anymore.

"Sakura."

"Mm…"

"Sakura."

"…."

Sasuke crouched down and looked at Sakura's face. She was knocked out.

_Unbelievable._ She tried to break his door, broke his hand, and was now asleep in his foyer. Shaking his head, he lifted the pink-haired kunoichi up and carried her into his room.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hi guys, LONG TIME NO WORD! I apologize; I just had a lot of stuff going on for the past, um, year. Wow, that's crazy that it's been a year. I'll try to update as fast as I can.

Comments would be extremely welcome, as, if I feel like no one is reading these, I really would have no reason to return to writing!


	14. Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

When Sakura opened her eyes, her first thought was that she really should stop waking up in unfamiliar beds.

But she knew whose bed this was – this scent, which she had no way of describing, could only belong to one surly Uchiha by the name of Sasuke.

_He gave me the bed?_

Somehow, Sakura couldn't picture Sasuke sleeping on the couch in his own home. She wondered why he didn't just let her sleep on the couch instead – or on the floor of the foyer where she had fallen asleep, for that matter, since the boy clearly wasn't exactly her biggest fan at the moment.

Kakashi, Genma, Sasuke. All these men had some weird, internal code of chivalry when it comes to where a girl should sleep, it would seem.

How unexpected.

It was still quite early. A glance at the clock told her that it was a little after 6:30 a.m. It was nowhere as early as she would have liked it to be, considering that she was definitely late for work, but there was nothing she could do about that now.

Sakura didn't want to leave the bed yet. It was warm and cozy, and she was still tired.

Then she heard the sounds of water coming from the direction of the bathroom. _Sasuke must be in the shower_, she thought idly. She would have loved to go back to sleep, but she knew that if she did, she'd be even later for work.

After a few minutes, she finally mustered up enough energy to get out of bed, and as she did so, she looked around the room while stretching her arms. She had not seen Sasuke's bedroom since he had moved in.

It was, in a word, neat. It looked like a hotel room – arranged, simple, and impersonal.

But then again, who was she to judge? Sakura's own room didn't look vastly different from Sasuke's in that it, too, didn't look lived-in, since she almost never went to it if she could help it.

Lost in her thoughts, Sakura opened the sliding door that led to the living room.

And ran smack into Sasuke's bare chest.

"Ow." She muttered. "Sorry, Sasuke." She hadn't even realized that the sound of him showering had ceased.

She looked up at Sasuke. Sakura was a petite girl, and Sasuke had grown to be almost as tall as their sensei. He now towered over her 5'2 frame easily – he was probably a little over an entire foot taller than her.

Having just come out of the shower, his hair was dripping water, and he had a small towel thrown over it. He also had a towel tied loosely around his waist.

The rest of him was unclothed and wet.

The twelve-year-old Sakura would have been blushing an interesting shade of red at this situation, but the nineteen-year-old medic simply regarded Sasuke's frame with the clinical interest of a doctor. She was rather pleased, yet surprised, to see that Sasuke wasn't quite as lanky as Kakashi. Kakashi sometimes tended to give Sakura the vibe of an overstretched teenager who had shot up a foot vertically overnight. Sasuke's physique, on the other hand, appeared well-balanced enough to satisfy the doctor in Sakura.

She moved away from the door frame, and leaned against it as Sasuke wordlessly went over to his closet.

"And sorry for putting you out last night, too." Sakura called out to his back. _Are you still mad at me for no reason?_

"Hn."

Typical.

"You didn't have to give me the bed." She paused. "Especially since you're mad at me for… Kage knows what."

Sasuke turned around to her direction and raised his eyebrow at her.

"Hey, you were peeved with me even before I broke your hand, so don't even give me that look." Sakura said defensively. Heaving a sigh, she crossed her arms. "Why _are_ you so mad at me? I apologized for everything. You've never given a shit what I do, so what could I possibly have done to piss you off?"

To her satisfaction, she saw surprise in Sasuke's face. He probably didn't think that she would ever be so blunt with him.

"I'm not mad at you." He finally said gruffly.

"You were," Sakura insisted, "don't lie to me."

"Why would I be lying?"

"I don't _know_, Sasuke, that's the whole point of this very conversation." She rolled her eyes. "But whatever the reason, if you're not going to tell me, can you just find a way to get over it yourself? I obviously can't help with it if I don't know what the fuck I did, and I'm not really interested in continuing this for the rest of my life."

They stood in silence while holding each other's gaze. When Sakura saw that Sasuke was definitely not going to speak, she spat out a foul word and sighed again. "Whatever, Sasuke. Thanks for letting me use your bed. See you tonight. Open the door this time."

"No Genma tonight?"

_What?_

Sakura stared at Sasuke, pausing mid-step. "Why would I be with Genma?"

"You were two nights ago." Sasuke countered quietly.

"Yeah, but it's not like I see him daily or anything." Something clicked in Sakura's brain then. "Wait. Did his bunshin say something to you that night?"

Sasuke said nothing, but Sakura could tell that something was up. "He did, didn't he? What did he say?"

"Nothing."

"_Sasuke_." Dear Kami, why did everything with Sasuke have to feel like pulling teeth? "Please tell me so I know whether to kill him or not. It would be quite tragic to be murdered unjustly."

"He didn't say anything, Sakura."

Sakura watched Sasuke very carefully.

"Sasuke," she cocked her head to one side, "does it bother you that I was with him?"

"No."

Silence ensued for a moment.

"Nothing happened with him, Sasuke. I haven't seen him in a while, so we went to dinner. That's all."

"Then why did your hair smell like him?"

Sasuke realized, too late, that the words had flown out of his mouth.

_Idiot,_ he chastised to himself.

Sakura looked incredulous. "What?"

"Forget it," Sasuke turned around to face his closet. He had just realized, with vague irritation, that he was still just wearing a towel.

Sakura moved closer to him and took him by the wrist. "No." She looked up into Sasuke's dark eyes. "Sasuke, do you think that I'm _sleeping_ with Genma?"

Sasuke tried to shake her hand off of his wrist, but to no avail. Sakura's grip was firm.

"No, listen. _Listen to me_, Sasuke. I am _not_ sleeping with _Genma_. Kami."

Sakura couldn't believe that Sasuke would think that she was sleeping with Genma. Moreover, why would that change his behavior toward her?

"Why do you care whether or not I sleep with Genma, anyway?" She laughed bitterly. "I can't believe you were mad at me for such a stupid, inconceivable reason."

"Why _did _your hair smell like him." Sasuke said quietly.

Sakura avoided his eyes as she spoke. "Because I got drunk at dinner and he took me to his place when I passed out… and I took a shower there in the morning." She could practically _feel_ his eyebrows going up at this statement. "But that doesn't mean I slept with him, especially since I'm _telling_ you that I didn't." She added emphatically.

She dropped his wrist and turned toward the door again. "Well, now that that's done, I'm going to work. I'll see you later."

Sakura left the bedroom, and a few seconds later, Sasuke heard his front door close softly.

* * *

Mere seconds after Sakura exited, Sasuke walked over to his bed and sat on the edge of it, putting his elbows on top of his knees and burying his face in his hands.

_Why do you care whether or not I sleep with Genma, _Sakura had asked.

Sasuke didn't know why.

He just knew that he cared, despite his best attempts not to do so.

And he didn't like that he was caring about it.

_God, she was as annoying as ever._

* * *

Kakashi visited the cenotaph every morning. Sakura knew this, and, therefore, she knew that the former sensei wouldn't be in his apartment – which was why she decided to take a shower there before going to work.

As she reached for the shampoo, she paused, remembering Sasuke's words from earlier.

In romance novels that she used to read as a daydreaming pre-teen, she knew that this was the part where she should jump around with joy that she finally got a boy to pay attention to the little things like the change in the scent of her hair.

But she wasn't that girl anymore, and her life was not a romantic novel. Their conversation from earlier probably didn't mean much, at the end of the day.

She was now old enough to know that she had never actually been in love with Sasuke. She was a little obsessed with him, maybe, when she was younger, but all those years of wanting to get Sasuke back to Konoha was largely out of the fact that he had been her teammate and friend.

She cared for him, yes. He was important to her because her team, Team 7, was important to her.

But she was not in love. She only loved him in the same manner that she loved Naruto, Kakashi, or any of her other friends.

Moreover, she had no desire _to_ be in love with him.

Being in love – a_ctually_ being in love, not like what she had felt when she was twelve – with Sasuke Uchiha would surely drive anyone to an early grave.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hi everyone! Thank you SO much to everyone who left reviews! I wasn't sure that I should go on with the story or not, but you guys are so so great and given me motivation. Please continue to leave comments if you enjoy the story :) Also, check out my other story, Paradox, if you have time, and I'm also working on starting another story as well - the only reason it hasn't been uploaded is because I can't really think of a fitting title for it yet, LOL.


	15. Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

"Lookin' good, Blossom."

Sakura looked up from her desk, recognizing the familiar voice as well as the nickname and flirting.

"Shiranui." She said curtly.

The teasing, confident smile Genma had been wearing a second before faltered slightly at Sakura's tone. "Something wrong?"

Not one to play games, Sakura decided to get straight to the point. "What did your bunshin tell Sasuke the other night?"

"Oh, _that."_ The smile was now back on full-force Genma's face. "It was nothing, really. I didn't say anything that wasn't true."

Sakura regarded the jonin dryly. "It's your version of the 'truth' that's worrying me."

Genma let out laughter. "Come on, Blossom. I thought we're friends now. You did sleep in my bed, after all."

"Okay, see, it's those kinds of comments that get misconstrued." She sighed. "Please, Genma. What did you say to Sasuke?"

The jonin walked over to Sakura's desk, in front of which she was sitting on a chair. He put his left hand on her desk, supporting himself as he leaned his face in closer to the medic's. "All I said was that you wouldn't be able to make it that night."

Sakura looked up at his face skeptically. "That's it?"

"That's it." He repeated. Then the mischievous twinkle in his eyes returned. "Oh, and I guess I might have told him that I would be taking good care of you that night. I just didn't want him to worry – you know me; always being considerate of others' feelings."

"_Genma,_" Sakura let out exasperatedly, "the way you say things makes it totally _not_ like what it really was."

Genma grinned. "Hey, I can't help it if other people's interpretational skills are greater than what I suppose them to be. I'm clearly a victim here." He wiped his grin off and tried to look more repentant. "Why, did Uchiha give you a hard time about it?"

"You could say that, I guess. Though, since he's the one who ended up with a broken hand, so it would seem that he got the worse end of it."

The brown-haired jonin barked with laughter. "Only you, Blossom." He said fondly. "You should come drinking with me more often; you were fun."

"Oh, shut up. I really should've quit a long time ago."

"Quit… drinking?!" Genma gasped in mock horror, and Sakura couldn't help but laugh at him. As peeved as she had been at him for causing trouble, he really was not the type of person at whom anyone could be mad for long.

_Damn him_.

"Why on earth would you ever even thinking about doing that, Blossom?"

"I _am_ a medic, you know. Health is a thing for me." She said dryly.

Genma regarded her for a moment in silence. His expression grew serious as he leaned in even closer to Sakura. "I think you're lying." He whispered into her ear quietly. "I think you're just afraid – afraid to let loose, to have fun, to be _yourself_."

When he pulled his face back slightly to look into her eyes, Sakura could see that the twinkle had returned in Genma's eyes as he said, "You're only nineteen once."

Sakura was about to open her mouth to protest Genma's theory when an unamused voice came behind the two of them from the window.

"Am I interrupting something?"

A silver-haired, lanky jonin sat perched atop the windowsill of Sakura's office.

Sakura sensed Genma move away from her instinctively.

"Hey, Kakashi," Genma greeted his comrade cheerfully, "no, not interrupting at all. I was just in the process of corrupting your cutest student."

"I think she's good, but thanks."

Silence ensued. Genma continued to grin at Kakashi while the latter man didn't draw his intense gaze from the former.

"Okay, wow," Sakura broke in, "I now know the true meaning of the phrase 'cutting the tension in the room with a kunai. Is it me, or did this room just become suffocating with a weird amount of testosterone all of a sudden?"

"Sorry, Blossom, it's me. You wouldn't believe how much testosterone gets built up in my – "

"The Hokage would like to see you, Sakura." Kakashi cut in emphatically, his expression unreadable. "Now."

Sakura blinked. "Shishou? Oh. Um. Okay." This took her by surprise; she hadn't been summoned to the Hokage's office in quite a while.

She got up from her chair and looked at Genma and Kakashi uncertainly. "Well. Wouldn't want to keep her waiting – she's the Hokage and all. But, uh, are you guys going to leave my office with me, or what?"

Before Genma could respond, Kakashi cut in once more. "You can go ahead – I'd like a word with our, uh, _friend_, Genma."

The pink-haired kunoichi considered insisting that they both leave – and leave _separately_ – but took one look at Kakashi's firm expression and realized that it was a lost battle.

She sighed.

"Okay. Later, guys."

Kakashi waited until Sakura's footsteps couldn't be heard anymore before turning his attention back to Genma.

The brown-haired jonin continued to wear a light smile on his face.

"So. Felt like having a chat with an old comrade, huh?" Genma's voice remained airy.

Kakashi's expression was dark. "What are you doing hanging around a girl who's _sixteen_ years younger than you, Shiranui?"

Genma chuckled. "Somehow, I think it'd be more fun to hear what _you _think I'm doing with her."

The Copy Nin merely continued to glower at him. "This isn't a game."

"Never thought it was." Genma replied easily. He then put up both of his hands, palms out. "Hey, man, I'm just teasing here. You know I wouldn't touch her; I'm not stupid. It's interesting, though," he added thoughtfully, "I wonder, you know. Would you act this scarily toward, say, Shizune, if you thought she was hitting on Naruto or Sasuke?"

"Shizune – or anyone else in the village, for that matter – doesn't have the reputation that you do when it comes to interacting with the opposite sex," reminded Kakashi quietly.

Genma pretended to pout. "Well, you're just hurting my feelings now."

"She's not your next plaything, Shiranui."

"Has it ever occurred to you," Genma said slowly, his gaze as intense as Kakashi's now, "that maybe I think that she's the one who will change my hedonist ways and that she's 'the one' for me? You know, the woman who changes me for the better? The reason I get up in the morning?" The brown-haired man couldn't help his face breaking into a grin as he said these words.

"Don't make me laugh."

Genma chuckled. "Kakashi, I'm telling you – I won't taint your precious student. She's nineteen; what kind of man do you even take me for?"

Kakashi didn't miss a beat. "A wholly depraved one," he deadpanned.

Laughing loudly, and knowing Kakashi enough to recognize that this conversation had now concluded, Genma turned to leave – but not before he had his last words.

"I would like you to ask yourself, though, Hatake," he kept his tone casual, "would I really be worse for Sakura than, oh, I don't know, Sasuke Uchiha would be?"

Satisfied that Kakashi didn't – or perhaps _couldn't_ – answer, Genma waved as he walked out.

* * *

"You wanted to see me, shishou?"

The blonde-haired woman spun around in her chair to face her younger disciple.

She didn't much like what she saw in Sakura at the moment. The girl looked tired; worn out. The Hokage found herself wishing, not for the first time, that life could afford to be kinder toward Sakura Haruno.

"I know you've been busy with the hospital, especially since coming back from Suna," Tsunade began, "but I'm sending you on a mission."

Sakura was completely taken aback. Tsunade knew the state of Konoha Hospital and its needs right now.

For Tsunade to send Sakura away at this time, there must have been an incredibly urgent issue.

"There's an epidemic of some kind going on over at the border patrol camps. I've gotten reports of the description of the disease, but it's nothing I've ever seen before." Tsunade continued, her expression grave. "Shizune's currently combing through the list of medics available and assembling a team – which will include Shizune herself. You are all to leave tonight."

Now Sakura was _really_ surprised. Shizune _and_ Sakura were both to leave within a few short hours? Tsunade would never send Shizune, her right hand, away unless something was seriously wrong. _This epidemic must be serious,_ thought Sakura.

She suddenly felt overwhelmed. She was so, so tired – and the border camps were a day and a half's worth of journey. They could maybe push themselves to try to make the trip to be a little over a day long, but that would require even more energy.

She knew she didn't have a choice, though. Moreover, she _wanted_ to go. Leaf lives were in danger, and she would never turn down a chance to be of help to her fellow villagers. She couldn't help that her body was involuntarily recoiling at the thought of a day and a half long journey, though.

_Suck it up, Sakura. Get it together,_ she told herself mentally.

"Hey, look who answered the door this time!" Said Sakura with a grin.

Sasuke shot her a dangerous look, but as he opened the door further and took in Sakura's appearance, he noticed that she was dressed in her green vest and had a full backpack with her.

Noticing his questioning glance, she said, "Yeah, I've been called away for a mission. I'm really sorry, Sasuke, but looks like I have to bail… again." She smiled ruefully. "I wanted to tell you this in person myself this time – you know, to make up for last time."

Sasuke didn't quite know what to say. The question, "Where are you headed to," was at the top of his throat, but he couldn't quite get himself to say the words.

Luckily, Sakura offered details without being asked.

"There's some sort of epidemic going on at the border patrol camps, so a few medics are needed. Please tell Naruto that I went on a mission; I didn't have time to stop by to say bye to him – or anyone, really. Naruto can tell everyone else. And, hey," she added, her gaze lowering to Sasuke's arm, "is your arm healing okay?"

The raven-haired Uchiha nodded gruffly.

"Good." Sakura flashed him a bright smile. "Go to the hospital if it bothers you at any point, alright? Wouldn't want the great Sasuke Uchiha to lose an arm."

She took a step back. "Okay, I've got to go meet the team now. Bye, Sasuke. Try not to be too annoyed with Naruto while I'm gone."

"When will you come back?"

Sakura blinked in surprise. She hadn't expected him to ask such a question – or any question, for that matter. "I'm not sure, honestly. Could be two days or two weeks… or maybe more, who knows. It depends on how fast we can get a cure going." She didn't bother mentioning that the epidemic seemed serious, for she was holding on to a small attitude of denial about the whole issue. Perhaps if she didn't make it out to be a big deal, it wouldn't turn out to be one.

She could dream, couldn't she?

With one last smile at the boy, Sakura took off into the night, leaving Sasuke alone in his doorway.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hey, guys! Wow, the story's been getting a lot of views - I've broken the 11,000 view mark! So happy that more people can be exposed to my imagination :D As always, thank you SO much to everyone who has reviewed - and if you haven't left reviews yet, I hope you do in the future, because I really can't explain how meaningful it is to get positive and encouraging words on your own creation. Special shout-out to **pedocat pat** for your very thorough review, and I wanted you to know that I appreciated your critique! I wanted to bring attention to something you said, which was that the story can get confusing with all the time skips and different POV's - that's totally my bad, as I didn't know that there was a linebreak function on this site for the first few chapters. When I wrote the stories on Word Document, I formatted the story so that it would clearly show when a section of the story ended, but when I uploaded it to , it would somehow undo it all D: Sad, sad. I hope it got less confusing as you kept reading, though, since I've discovered the magical linebreak button a few chapters in, haha.

Keep the reviews coming for faster updates, folks! Love you all!


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